Lamar: A Brief History, Part I

Tuesday, June 20:
On or about this date, Dad got a call (since Mama was working at Williams-Sonoma) from Spring Lake Recreation, where Henry was attending a summer day camp, to report that Henry had thrown up in the swimming pool. I picked him up and he seemed fine. He simply reported that being in the water made him a little nauseous. There had been a bug going around, and we figured he had one of those one or two-day virus things.

Thus began a period where we would keep him home for a couple of days - he would feel fine: we would send him back to camp...and he would throw up again. Headaches were not very occurrent at this point. He would usually only have one rather modest episode of throwing up, and we would keep him home for at least two days of no vomiting, but after two weeks we went to the Doctor.

Monday, July 10:
We visited our pediatric clinic and saw one of the doctors. She believed that Henry had acid reflux (!) and prescribed Prevacid. She said to call if symptoms did not subside in a few days.

After a couple of days, it appeared that the Prevacid was causing Henry to vomit, so we called the nurse and said we were discontinuing it. We were told that yes indeed, there was a bug going around which might be the source, and (although it would be unlikely to be a cause) there were a few cases of strep reported. Since Henry had a very violent case of strep when he was younger, we made an appointment to test for strep.

Friday, July 14:
We saw Dr. L, and the strep test came up negative. Headaches were occurring, but still infrequent and mild. Dr. L suspected "Abdominal Migraine," and prescribed a Benedryl derivative.

After a couple of days when things seemed to get better, the vomiting continued and seemed to get more severe. The headaches also became more frequent, especially during a B.M. We began to get quite worried, and called Dr. L who scheduled a full blood screening.

Friday, July 21:
When we met with Dr. L, Mama talked with him directly about our growing concerns. Henry was given a full round of blood and urine tests. Some tests needed to go to an outside lab, but a few that were done at the doctor's office came out clean, and Dr. L was fairly confident in his initial diagnosis of Abdominal Migraine.

Saturday, July 22:
Dr. L called us with the lab results and everything was normal. We were very relieved, and continued with his medicine.

He seemed to do better the next few days, and sine we were assured by Dr. L that Henry was in no way contagious, we felt comfortable with moving ahead with our vacation plans on July 28, which included visiting Aunt S and Uncle S outside Atlanta, GA.

All seemed good, although on his last day of camp, we got the call that Henry had thrown up.

Next, Part II: The Vacation