Riddle Me This

Remember a while back, when you laughed at me for wanting to say "vet" instead of "pediatrician?"

Well, now I'm not sure which one we should call, because the kid and the dog are exhibiting identical symptoms.

Seriously.

Peeper and PerfectPup had synchronized bloody poops this afternoon.

What. The. Fuck?

PerfectPup has had hurty-poopy issues off and on since she was about six months old, but only in the past few months have we seen blood, which was diagnosed as colitis.

(Which, I think, is just a fancy way of saying "hurty poopy.")

She was doing some yelping yesterday, and then actually had one hurty poopy in the house, which is definitely out of the ordinary for her. Then, she was clingy again today, so we knew it wasn't over yet.

(When she's not feeling well, she follows us around very closely, then poops and cries.)

Peeper was in my lap, and PerfectPup was right beside the chair, whining. I told her, "Well go outside if you need to poop. Go find Mommy to let you out," and she trotted off.

(Seriously, she did. Actually I think Mommy was outside - ironically, picking up poop.)

A few minutes later, I heard her yelping and said to Peeper, "Poor Puppy!" - Just then, I felt Peeper pooping. At the very same time.

Later, I was walking down the hall to take Peeper for a diaper change, when I passed PerfectPup and saw that her fluffy white booty fur had some blood on it.

I hollered to Shrike, "Hey, have you seen PP's butt?" She had, and was on the case.

Just then, I opened Peeper's diaper and shouted again to Shrike, "You're not going to believe this one!"

Upon further inspection of Peeper, we also noticed that, instead of just the same perianal (thank you for the big word, Anonymama) redness that she usually has, she's red all over her booty-cheeks.

(Sorry. Buttocks. Or, as LittleNiece says "Butt tocks." You know, your butt has several parts: cheeks, crack, hole, tocks. . . .)

Butt, I digress. . . .

So, now what?

Some thoughts:

Thrush? We're not seeing anything in her mouth, but she did get a lot of antibiotics post-op. I may be feeling some nipple tenderness myself, but on the other hand, she's been nursing 24/7 since we got home, so maybe they're just tired.

Maybe it's the "gets worse before it gets better" thing again with the dairy. Would that happen again, from cutting out the rest of it from my diet?

Maybe the bloody poop (and probably hurty poop, although the bloody one didn't seem to hurt) and the redness are unrelated? The poop could still be messed up from the morphine, and maybe the redness is because there was a diaper-laundering miscommunication, and they've not been getting their extra rinse, to remove any detergent residue.

(Ack, I need to go put all the clean diapers in for an extra rinse right now!)

This all happened, of course, at around 5:30 pm, so we didn't call the doctor's office about it, because we figured we'd get the same answer as before, that it's not an emergency unless it's a whole lot of blood, or her stool is black with older blood, or something else bad.

I will be talking to them tomorrow, anyway, to see how they're coming along with the insurance company, regarding her last Synagis shot, which she's supposed to get this week.

It seems the insurance company is denying it, saying that she doesn't need it because "RSV season is over."

Tell that to all the RSV babies who were in the hospital with her, or the baby that our doctors diagnosed on Friday, or LeaderH (DoulaK's La Leche League co-leader) whose baby (about six weeks older than Peeper) was diagnosed with it today.

(Rememember when DoulaK stopped by yesterday? She had dropped off some things to LeaderH right before that, but just left them on the porch, because everyone there is sick, and she's got like three births coming up, and has four kids of her own, and can't afford to be sick or germy. Thank God!)

But, again, I digress. . . .

So, Peeper is spitting up a whole lot less now, but still more than normal for her. She's had another bloody stool (one diaper, plus a teensy maybe bit on the next diaper) and she's screaming her ever-loving head off, pumping her little leg and not settling to nurse, fairly often, probably when she needs to poop, and her whole butt is red.

Coincidence? I think not.

And, PerfectPup is having hurty, bloody diarrhea, too.

Coincidence? Surely, it must be.

Right?