Merry Medical Moment: Gross!

Now that it's December and Christmas is approaching I shall place my tongue firmly in my cheek and call these "Merry Medical Moments" instead of Medical Moments. 'Cause why have a medical moment when you can have a merry medical moment?

So, the most recent of our medical moments is absolutely gross. Totally, completely gross. So if you're eating or if you have a weak stomach, then this is your warning. Stop eating. Stop reading.

With that said... Sunday night. Yes, another Sunday night. When sickness strikes at our house, it strikes on Sunday nights. Not sure why, but it does. Sunday evening D and I returned from a wonderful date afternoon. (We saw the movie Morning Glory. It's cute and entertaining.) We thanked D's parents for rescuing relieving us of our parental duties for a few hours and we stepped, no leaped back into reality. Shortly after D's parents left L made a stinky diaper. When D asked me to come over and look at it I knew something was wrong. It was half "normal," half red. "Did he eat play-doh? Geesh, that's red!" A quick call to D's parent's and they confirmed L did not eat play-doh nor did he eat any red food. Then what is it? I called peds after-hours and they said several things, but the main thing was to give it some time and three red diaps before taking him in to the ER. Time went on, another diaper came. It was all red. We worried, we contemplated our options and decided to take L to the ER. D's Mom returned to our house to stay with N while we took L to the hospital. We took the two diapers to the hospital with us. Sounds gross, I know, but we are soooo glad we did! If your child ever has an odd looking diaper, I strongly encourage you to wrap it up in a plastic bag and bring it with you to be examined because this is what saved us from having to endure a myriad of blood tests and sonograms. We talked to the doctors about several things, but one of them was the medicine L is currently taking for an ear infection, Cefdinir (or Omnisef as they call it at the hospital). Apparently this medicine has strange effects on a child's pee and poo. It can turn pee orange and poo red. Luckily the resident assigned to us talked this over with the on shift doctor and the doctor informed her of this fact before tests and sonograms were performed. The doctor had the resident do a litmus test of sorts using a small smudge of L's poo and it confirmed that there was no blood in the stool. The litmus test showed all the red stuff was the Omnisef! Thank goodness! I was sure we had internal bleeding on or hands, but we didn't. One thing the doctor noted was that the poo was "brick red" instead of bright red. He said the color of red is a big sign in what could be going on. SO, if you have kids remember Omnisef/Cefdinir can make your child's poo turn brick red. (But, if you have any concerns I'd certainly advise you to make a trip to the ER to rule out anything more serious!)