Dansons in Delaware

I am writing you with much sadness because we are very worried here in Paris about our baby Michael. On Sunday morning, we noticed his fontanelle/soft spot on his head was bulging. After consulting our books/internet, it is indeed a very serious problem and I saw my pediatrician. He immediately put me into a taxi and sent me to Hopital Neckar, which is the Infant/Children's hospital here with a specialized infant emergency room. He sent me with a note and called a doctor who was already expecting me when I arrived.

There, they did a very thorough physical examination on Michael and found nothing physically wrong with him. He had no fever, vomiting, or irritability and was his normal funny disposition. They then decided to do a CT scan on Michael to take a look at his brain to see if there was any evidence of tumor or hemorraghing. Brian and I found ourselves quite in tears as they bandaged our first born to a little flat board so he couldn't move and sent him into the CT where he fell asleep. With a bulging fontanelle, the least terrible thing is Meningitis, which is very bad already. Other causes can be bleeding in the brain, head trauma, tumors, and various other awful things. All this and Michael had not eaten for 4 hours already.

After consulting the scans, the doctor said that everything looked normal and there was no evidence of tumors, bleeding in the brain, or anything like that. With no fever, vomiting, diarrhea, or irritability, that everything is normal. No meningitis since there was no fever. They sent us home and told us to watch for signs of any of the previously mentioned things and to return if they surfaced. The doctor also assured us that she has seen cases where the fontanelle is bulging and there was nothing wrong and that the baby was ok.

On our way home, they called us and said they gave us the wrong scan contact sheet from the CT, which immediately made us sick to our stomach that they possibly could have mixed up the scans/results. But they assured us that the doctor looks at the scan as it is being taken and makes his prognosis from a computer screen, not the actual contact sheet. The only mistake that was made was that we were given the incorrect one to take home. They also said that the child's scan that we had was fine, as was Michael's, so the prognosis would have been the same either way. However, I am still worried about it of course.

So now, it has been 6 hours since Michael has eaten and 2 hours past his bedtime and he is of course not feeling well after getting his temperature taken rectally 4 times in less than 6 hours and been poked and prodded at. I have a ton of milke and he eats too fast and vomits it up, which we are then worried because it is one of the signs we are supposed to pay attention to. HOwever, in this case, I believe it is because he was so hungry, ate too fast, and had an empty stomach. He has eaten 5 times since then and has not vomited at all.

We are very very worried and need lots of prayers from you guys because there is no discernible cause for his bulging fontanelle. Even my pediatrician is very worried. He called me at 8:00pm on my cell phone last night to get the results from Neckar and told me to immediately phone him if I see anything unusual in Michael. We are watching him like a hawk for anything abnormal. I talked to my pediatrician again today and he asked if his fontanelle had gone down and I said maybe a little, but it is hard to measure such a thing so I don't know. It is definitely NOT flat like it is supposed to be. He is going to call back tomorrow. Obviously, if my pediatrician is this worried, we are as well.

We cancelled our weekend in Dinan, which is a 4 hour drive away and any meetings/appts for the week so we can watch MIchael. The nanny is also here helping and I have notified her of the things to look for even though I am also here as well.

We are just so worried for our little boy. He is just our sweet little baby who IS perfect so we just can't even think about such terrible things. I am reduced to tears each time. I slept in his room with him for part of the night and have just babied him all day by holding him, playing with him, and comfort nursing him for the both of us.

We wanted to keep you guys in the loop because this appears to actually be a very serious problem. Now, Michael is fussing at the breast, won't take a bottle, not taking formula so he is not eating well either. Calls to the doctor are daily and we are just very worried about our little baby.

Love,
B&P