Missed Diagnosis

Good morning! Well, you probably noticed from the lack of a posting on Friday that I was in a mad dash to meet a deadline. The good news is that I hit it. The bad news is that was not the only reason that I had not written. You see Thursday and Friday were not only busy because of work but also because two of our gaggle decided to be under the weather.

On Thursday afternoon Sydney began the puke parade. It started in the early afternoon. She began with horrible headaches. Knowing how much I despise headaches in Sydney you can guess how well this went over. Of course, I was fearing the worst. I always do with headaches. None the less, I darkened the room and tried to make everything as comfortable as possible for her. At the time, I was hoping for the normal culprit (at least I hope) which was dehydration. I gave her some fluids and Tylenol. Luckily, that all seemed to stay down for about an hour.

However, it did not stay down forever. As if her body was on a timer, at one hour, she was praying to the porcelain god. This was followed my a barrage of hiccups, a clearing of the headache, and then, a little later, a repeat cycle.

Now, Lynley thinks I am nuts, so take this with a grain of salt. But, I have a theory behind all of these episodes. I think that Sydney has these symptoms due to her kidneys. With one grossly undersized and another not operating at 100% (due to treatment) I believe that she is more prone to symptoms such as these. Similar to a chronic kidney issue I think it is the source of her sporadic but relatively routine headaches with hiccups.

Yes, I understand that could all be normal, too. But, do some research. I did, and you will find out that my theory is probably not too far out there.

If I am right can anything be done about it? Possibly, this could be treated by medication. However, as Lynley points out, how much more scanning do we really need to put her through. I agree but I also think a renal panel might also be interesting. I will have to order one up.

So, I give you all of this conspiracy theory only to rip it to shreds on this particular occasion. As it turns out, within about 12 hours, Graham started presenting with the same symptoms. He spent Friday puking away. Since I know Sydney's treatment was not contagious and Graham's kidneys are probably just fine, there must be another culprit.

This, unfortunately, leads me down another path that I did not want to go. You see, I really like Mama's Pizza. The problem is this: after the last 3 visits to Mama's Pizza, within about 24 hours, at least 2 or more Dungans have presented with nausea and/or significant intestinal issues. Yes, without fail, our dinners have been followed with sickness. I truly hope that this is not a continued trend because Mama's really is a family favorite. However, the evidence certainly is not pointing in their favor at this point.

Well, that is my story and I am sticking to it. The good news is that both kiddos were good as gold within 24 hours of the onset of their symptoms. I met my deadline and Lynley got all 300 of the student laptops ready to roll. We should be back to normal.

At least as normal as our purpose can be.