A Not So Routine Check-Up

On Friday, I took Bunky for his 9 month check-up.  I assumed it was just going to be routine, no surprises, especially since I didn’t have any major concerns about him.  We arrived a few minutes late because Punky was throwing one of his tantrums.  Yes, he is four and a half and still frequently throwing major tantrums- more on that later.

We were sitting in the waiting room when out of the corner of my eye I saw Spunky throw up.  She had covered a chair, a book and the floor and her clothes needed to be changed.  I called the receptionist to help, and she ran to get supplies to clean up.  As she did, Spunky threw up again, but this time I was able to get her to land it in a garbage can.   I don’t typically bring a change of clothing for my older children, so I took off Punky’s long-sleeved shirt (he had a t-shirt on under) and put that on Spunky like a long over-sized dress.  She said she felt fine, and I have no idea why she threw up because she has been perfectly healthy since.

A nurse took Bunky into the other room to weigh him while I cleaned up Spunky.  I could hear Bunky screaming it in the other room and it broke my heart.  Spunky was finally semi-presentable, so she, Punky and I were able to go to the examine room to be with Bunky.  He immediately stopped crying and reached out his arms as soon as he saw me.  My sweet boy!

That was when Punky started freaking out- there is no other word for it.  He started screaming and crying.  He even kicked the wall and window.  He took his shoe off his foot and threw it across the room.  He was terrified that Bunky needed to get a shot, which Bunky was not going to, but it didn’t matter because he was all worked up about it.  He fought with his sister and yelled at me. (A couple of years ago, Punky came down with a really bad case of pneumonia, as a result, he had to have blood drawn and a shot of antibiotics.  He has been scared of shots ever since.)

All the while I was trying to take care of Bunky and talk to the pediatrician.  At the nine month check-up, they do a heel prick to check the baby’s blood.  It turns out that Bunky’s iron count was really low, so they had to draw more blood to check his hematocrit level.  The normal range for a child his age is 33-40%.  Bunky’s was 8.2%.

The pediatrician also heard a slight heart murmur during the exam, which could be related to the low hematocrit level.  I have to now give Bunky vitamins with iron and two serving of iron-fortified cereal a day.  I am also going to take iron supplements because if Bunky has low iron, I probably do as well.  Hopefully, Bunky’s problem is just low iron and not something more serious.  When I asked the pediatrician what else it could be, she said, “we’ll talk about that when we get there,” which made me even more upset.  I have to take Bunky back to have his blood checked again in two weeks.

After the appointment, I was feeling like such a failure as a mom.

Punky couldn’t behave to save his life, Spunky threw up out of no where, and now my poor baby boy was not healthy.  I felt like I could have somehow controlled all of these things.  I needed to make my baby healthy again, keep a close eye on my princess and determine how I could help Punky.

And all this happened before 10am!

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I would appreciate your prayers for both of my boys.

Thankfully, Spunky is completely fine!  Grammy’s theory, which I think is probably true, is that Spunky may have been trying to make herself burp.  It is her not-so-secret talent that she does to impress people. That girl cracks me up!

I’ll update you as I know more.

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