Friday, February 24, 2012

How my son perceives strep throat

This past week, Little Bug has been really sick- a burning fever and non stop vomiting.  He was vomiting so bad that he couldn't hold down Tylenol.  While we tried to treat him for the flu- because he didn't express any other symptoms (other than the obvious vomiting of course), we took him to the doctor on Tuesday.  Low and behold, he has strep throat- bad enough that the doctor said he was "running the test just to confirm what I already know".

Nick and I were shocked because Little Bug didn't express any symptom of strep throat- he was eating like a horse and didn't say that his throat hurt.  In fact, he had trouble identifying when he was going to vomit.  The only symptom he had, and I quote, "my brain itches".

Little Bug still seems to have a lot of trouble interpreting the signals of his body- including pain, temperature, and normal bodily functions like needing to go to the bathroom.  Things that you would think shouldn't hurt are regarded as human torture however things that you would think would be incredibly painful- such as when he broke his thumb or recovering from a surgery- are treated like no big deal.

I'll never forget when we had taken him to the beach and when we got home we noticed that he had little pieces of glass in his feet!  At his second birthday party, he wanted to play with the ice in the bucket around the soda.  Although most of us would have stopped after a couple of minutes, he continued playing to the point that he had to be forcibly removed.  He constantly cries that his shower is too cold but as his caregiver you know that the temperature is right where it should be.

We have done OT- including brushing, "texture exposure therapy", weighted items, and more vestibular input activities than we can count- but nothing seems to touch this sensory disconnect.

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