On Friday, we traveled to Atlanta for the 3rd time in 6 days to meet with a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor about Blake. There is only one in Savannah and she works one day a month. How effective is that? Anyway, if you need any special services, don't stay in Savannah. Go somewhere else. Sorry to rant.
Dr. Stephen Shore of Sandy Springs Pediatrics saw Blake. They called at 10:50 on Friday morning. We left school immediately. Rick met us at the house and we were on our way to Atlanta by 11:05. Record time!! Blake has Chronic Osteomyelitis. This is an infection in the bone. There is no cure but hopefully he will go into remission and stay there. Dr. Shores said that it can come from a fracture or even a hematoma. We will never know. What we do know is that it needs to be treated. The plan is to treat with Clyndamyacin for 6 months. He has to take 3 pills 3 times a day for 6 months. He is also on Florator which is a probiotic with yeast to hopefully keep him from getting a yeast or diarrhea from all of the antibiotics. So that makes 11 pills a day.
If this infection comes back, it will come back in the exact same place and present itself with the same symptoms. Hopefully this will not happen. Dr. Shore was extremely thorough and spent a lot of time with us. He was obviously a brilliant man. We finally feel like we have the answers that we have been agonizing over for 3 weeks. We are SO thankful that it is not cancer and we know that it could be a lot worse, but we also know that this is a rare and serious diagnosis. Fortunately, Blake does not let anything hold him back and he is taking all of his medicine like a champ.
We will follow up with Dr. Shore in 5 weeks when Blake gets his cast taken off. Until then, we will just keep popping pills!!!
I am so, so, SO glad it isn't cancer! Wow, what a diagnosis, though! I'll pray for the infection to go into remission, and I'll also pray that it never returns! Poor kiddo- that is a lot of medication every day!
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