Ups and Downs

It has been a week of ups and downs for Weilong. I called the neurosurgeons office last Thurs or Friday and talked with the nurse. I expressed my concern about Weilong's terrible morning headaches. She said the fact that they are worse in the morning is "significant" whatever that means. She urged me to write down things like this and discuss them with the doctor when we go in on Thursday. I asked her for something to help Weilong with his tummy aches. She told me to give him antacids. She said if things got worse or I became concerned to take him to the emergency room. The same speech I've heard many times over the last couple of weeks.

Friday and Saturday Weilong had headaches almost all day long and just laid on the sofa. I was so distressed that I went off by myself and cried a couple of times. He kept saying he was tired, and his tummy hurts. We talked with him about trying to limit the amount of pain meds he takes because we think that may be why his tummy hurts. And I gave him zantac which seemed to help. But he was just plain uncomfortable and in a very sad mood. He has been unable to sleep more than 4 or 5 hours each night because his head starts hurting and wakes him. So, on Sat I made him take a nap. Headache followed, but at least he was more rested.

Saturday evening Weilong got a big surprise. His big brother (the very best brother in the whole world) bought him a Wii and hooked it up. Weilong could not resist going out into the converted garage and playing with it. He was more rested because of the nap and he had a wonderful time.

We talked him into sleeping in a recliner Sat night. We dragged it into the master bedroom so that I could get up with him if needed. He is afraid to go to sleep because that's when the headaches become bad. So, I gave him half a tylenol pm about 2:30 and tucked him into the chair.

He slept til 10:30 Sunday morning! And his headache was very slight when he woke up! It worked. We missed church because I didn't want to wake him up by running my shower and getting clothes from my room. He was mad about that because he had really wanted to go on Mother's day.

He felt so much better on Sunday. We limited the amount of time he laid down. And he only had one bad headache that lasted about 45 minutes on Sunday.

Last night he slept in the recliner again. The first part of the night we had it reclined too far back and he woke up with a headache after about 4 hours. So, I gave him ibuprofen and raised the chair to about a 45 degree angle. He went back to sleep and woke up with only a slight headache a few hours later.

He has played like normal all day today, again only having one episode of headache that didn't last very long after taking tylenol.


I don't know why his head hurts when he lays down, but for now he will continue to sleep in the recliner. I'm so thankful that we seem to have found a way to give him relief from those terrible headaches. It has been awful hearing him cry and bang his head with his tiny fist.

Weilong wants to go to school for a couple of hours tomorrow and I may let him. He's still weak, but gaining strength every day. And now he consistently weighs 39.5 lbs. I think he'll be 40 by next week.