jonah is still sick :(

I'm feeling sad and confused tonight about Jonah's mysterious illness. He wakes up with diarrhea (like major blow-out diarrhea) every morning but then doesn't have it again all day. When he's healthy, we give him 8 oz of tube feed in the morning, 7.5 oz at lunch, and 7 oz at night. For the last several days, we've been doing 6 oz at breakfast, 5 oz at lunch, and 6 oz at dinner. And he's still throwing up at least one meal each day. I thought he was doing better today because he held down breakfast and lunch, but then he puked his entire dinner. I called the doctor and of course they think it's a virus and said to do Pedialyte. Thanks. But here's the thing, if it's a stomach bug, why haven't Matt or I caught it? We're on day five, and I thought most stomach bugs were highly contagious.


Irrational Fear #1: Jonah chews on his Tubifast (outer sock type bandaging) at night and eats the strings (that's not the fear; that's truth). Could he be developing some kind of blockage?


Irrational Fear #2: He has some sort of bacterial infection that's making him have stomach issues.


Irrational Fear #3: Some food I'm mixing with his tube feeds is bad?


I don't know, but something about it just doesn't seem typical to me. He's not lethargic or puny and doesn't act like he feels bad at all between the puking. He's normal Jonah, but with puking and diarrhea. It's weird.


And how long do I give it before I take him to the doctor? And even when I do, what are they going to do? Is it worth it to expose him to even more germs? Today was Day Five. He's having maybe three wet diapers a day.


In other news, I'm doing a whole lot of youtube surfing for beginner guitar lessons after J is down for the night. I tweeted this photo last night.

Don't worry. I've learned how to spell "chord" since I took this. I'm making great progress. 

I have most of the major (and a couple minor) chords written out, so now it's just time to practice learning them without looking/counting and switching between them. No biggie, right? And I have to say, you think guitarists just get up there and strum. But I am not good at improvisation. I can't "just strum." I need you to show me your right hand too youtube video people! Not all of us can just make it sound right. Some of us need order and rules and exact instructions for everything we do in life. Dang it. (I'm going to be a terrible go-with-the-flow, laid back musician.)

But back to the stuff that really matters. I would love for you guys to pray for Jonah's health and for clarity and discernment on our part. EB makes everything so much scarier, and you don't want to just run him to the doctor for any little thing. He's likely to pick up something just as bad, if not worse, there. It's always a question of how long to wait it out and when to take him in and what tests/procedures you can put him through that will do more good than harm. Prayers are definitely appreciated.