Infectious Lymphocytosis

That's what my little man has. It's so nice to have an actual diagnosis and a name.

And it's a good diagnosis to have. From what the hematologist told me, Gage has an immature immune system. It's not terribly common. He, himself, has never seen this before, but he has colleagues who have, and it's been reported in medical journals, etc.

So Gage got this viral infection back when he was two months old. It was his first time ever being sick. His white blood cell count went up, to fight this virus. The cells did a good job and eliminated the virus from his body. It's not there any longer. But then his cells didn't know to go back down to normal levels again.

He should grow out of it when he's one year old or so. Until then, his white blood cell count is just going to be high. But having a high white blood cell count doesn't do any damage, in and of itself, so he's just fine.

His barfiness is likely related to his high white blood cell count. His body is still trying to get rid of this virus, which in fact, is long gone. That's what the hematologist thinks.

No more blood draws! Hooray! I'm so glad. And I'm glad he's okay.

Our pediatrician is still obsessed with finding some way of eliminating the barfing. So is Gage's OT. She gave me this stuff today called "thickener," which adds calories and thickens the formula, thereby helping it to stay in the stomach better. It looks like cocaine. I brought it home and showed my mom, joking, "Hey, Mom, look, I picked up some cocaine from my OT." It was in a baggie and everything.

I think she was tired and not all there, because she was like, "You have cocaine in that bag???"

"Um, no, Mom, it was a joke." What in our experience together makes you think that I would buy cocaine, Ma?! Hahahaha! I'm going to chalk it up to tiredness on her part.

As for the pediatrician, he found some other rare formula he wants Gage to try for three weeks. It's called.... I can't remember. Something with a P. Like, Philharmonica or something. I know that's not what it's called, but I'm too tired to find the paper he wrote it down on. Word on the street is that it's just as stinky as Nutramigen and Alimentum. Which makes me really, really not want to go get some.

Part of me is just... tired. Tired of trying ten billion things. I've kind of come to accept that Gage is barfy. But they haven't yet. So I'm doing these things to appease them.