Justin

Justin is our second son. He was born on May 25, 1989 in Minneapolis, MN. I breastfed him exclusively until he was about 6 months old and started adding some solids around that time. He didn't like the prepared baby foods so I gave him pureed table foods. Mostly, he just wanted to breastfeed, so that's what he did. We continued this lovely breastfeeding relationship until he was 2-1/2 years old at which time I began having Panic Attacks (an old friend of mine) and my doctor told me I would have to wean before resuming antidepressant therapy. Not knowing any better, I agreed. Justin was not thrilled about being cut off from the breast and it hurt me to see him consoling himself by sucking his thumb and twiddling his own nipple (he used to twiddle mine while nursing on the other!). That concluded our breastfeeding relationship.
Justin's health problems began to show up when he was all of 3 months old. He came down with his first cold and it developed into an ear infection. He was treated with antibiotics and it went away--only to return with the next cold and the next cold and the next cold. This went on for years and the antibiotics began to be less effective until only the most potent would take care of any acute infection. He was also put on maintenance antibiotics for every winter when he seemed to have the most trouble. When Justin was 6 years old, we consulted with an ENT doc who said his tonsils should go. Justin had spent the better part of a year having repeated strep-throat infections and ear infections. After he had his tonsils removed, the strep only returned occasionally, but Justin continued to have colds and sinus infections. He has been treated with Augmentin through the years because that seemed to be the only antibiotic that would clear up the current infection. This went on until Justin turned 16. Then the bloody diarrhea started. At first, I thought it was all related to the antibiotics wreaking havoc on his bowel. We tried switching antibiotics but the diarrhea prevailed. Then it would go away only to resume a few weeks later. We decided it was time for Justin to see another ENT to see if once and for all we could alleviate his sinus problems and hopefully his need for antibiotics would go away and so would the diarrhea. So, Justin had sinus surgery in December 2005. Of course he still needed antibiotics and of course the diarrhea seemed vicious while he was on them. But his sinuses did seem to improve somewhat. Then, in March, I got a call from Justin from school asking me to pick him up. He said he felt extremely tired and dizzy and he couldn't focus on his schoolwork. I brought him home and pulled down his lower eyelids and was shocked to see that there was very little bloodshot. That scared me. He was losing a significant amount of blood in his stools if he was showing signs of anemia. So I took him to the ER where they ran some tests to rule out parasites, among other possible GI diseases. This was not the first time we had seen Justin's doctors for the bloody diarrhea. In fact, he had an appointment to see a specialist at Children's Hospital in Seattle, but with this latest episode, I was afraid his electolytes were out of wack, so that is why he ended up in the ER. About the only thing they could tell us was that he did have a mild electolyte embalance and he did not have parasites, C. Difficile, or a number of other things. Then on his 17th birthday, he had a colonoscopy and endoscopy. The diagnosis came back as Crohn's disease. And that is where my story of relactation begins. But that is saved for the next post.