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The story of our precious little girl's 17 months of life with Trisomy 18 (July 4, 2010 - December 15, 2011) and of us, re-learning to live "after Lilly."
"I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made ...." Psalm 139:14

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Prayer request AND bedwetting update

Please pray for my aunt Pam (aka Shisshy).  She is in the hospital with double pneumonia.  She has it much worse than poor Tabby did, which was bad enough.  She also has been diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.  Her breathing was so bad she had to be intubated, and will have to remain sedated and on the ventilator for awhile.

Shisshy is my favorite aunt and is the one that found the hospital that was willing to operate on Lilly's heart.  (Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.)  She won't like me posting her picture, but I will anyway.  I took this picture July 4, 2010 - the day Lilly was born.

Lilly meets her great-aunt Shisshy

I posted last summer about Hunter's nighttime bedwetting.  Several people were very interested in the post, all who had kids with the same issue, and some of the kids were also 7 years old like Hunter..  They were hoping I'd give an update if I noticed any changes, so here it is!

As I mentioned in this post, Hunter endured a treatment plan of pediatric enemas to try and overcome nighttime bedwetting.  I had read about this in the book It's No Accident: Breakthrough Solutions to Your Child's Wetting, Constipation, UTIs and Other Potty Problems by Steve J. Hodges.  Much to his sorrow, it did not work for him, though it did clear up a few other issues he was having, which was great.

However, Hunter is thrilled that he has now been dry at night for over a month now.  (These posts may embarrass him one day, but he is currently happy I am writing them to try and help other kids.)

What happened?  The thing I am linking it to is his pneumonia that he had in January!  Well not the pneumonia itself - but the treatment for it.  He was on two antibiotics.  When the doctor wrote me the prescription for amoxicillin she warned me that it would probably really mess his stomach up, so to step up with the probiotics. 

Well it did, by day two of the dosing.  For both boys.  They had terrible diarrhea the whole next 9 days they were on the amoxicillin.  I did my best to keep them extra hydrated and eating yogurt and taking probiotic supplements.  But there was an awful lot of sudden running to the bathroom.

At the end of the dosage, Hunter suddenly began staying dry at night!  I can not tell you how relieved and happy that made him.  He fully believes that the antibiotic cleaned him out way better than the enemas did.  (He didn't hold the enemas in long enough probably.  Sorry if that's too much information - but if you are a parent reading this and trying to help your child - you will appreciate knowing that.)

Possibly another benefit to the antibiotic was suggested by a dear friend of mine.  She had read about a link between candida (yeast overgrowth) and bedwetting.  Hunter has had issues with yeast overgrowth in the past - whenever I don't monitor his carb intake.  (He'd love to just live off bread and crackers.)  Since the antibiotics kill off all bacteria (good and bad) perhaps it wiped out any yeast overgrowth in his gut/system. 

Whatever it was, Hunter is so thankful and that makes me thankful too.

playing possum

4 comments:

  1. the most beautiful possums in the world. hugs and kisses mj

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  2. I will be praying for Aunt Shisshy and Hunter (for continued progress). I know you sharing these issues helps many others.

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  3. I'm so glad Hunter is doing better, and will be praying for your Aunt Shisshy. So sorry to hear she is that sick! Two of our three boys wet the bed until they were eight. There is a hormone that is released about that age, in boys. I can't remember what it is, but many boys just don't wake up during the night to go to the bathroom, until they hit that age. For some it's actually closer to nine, but typically it's right about eight years old and for ours, that's exactly when the bed wetting stopped. I don't know if this has anything to do with what Hunter has experienced, but I know several moms of boys who say their boys did the same thing, so I did a little research on it. Praying your aunt will heal up quickly! (((hugs)))

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    1. That is SO interesting Jana! Thank you for sharing it. I passed that along to a friend who's son is 7 and having the same thing. Thanks for sharing!

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