Lead Poisoning

Friday, as we were leaving Pepere’s house, I got a call from Noby’s doctor.  The test results from his last blood test were in and they were not good.  At Noby’s 12 month appointment he had blood taken.  They tested for lead and it came back in the normal range but on the high side.  Normal range is 0 – 10, 0 being normal and 10, the high side.  So at his last appointment, the 15 month one, they tested the blood again.  The doctor was calling about this second blood test.  Noby’s blood lead level is now over the normal range and they are now concerned, his level is at a 17.  Not high enough that he has to go to the hospital or anything but high enough that they are concerned.  They wanted Noby to start on a prescription right away so they called it in to a pharmacy in CT.  I give it to him twice a day for 3 months.  In a month we go back in for a more blood work and again when the meds are finished.  We are giving him Feosol, which is an iron supplement.  The iron and lead should fuse together and flush out of his system.

We decided that we were going to leave my parents house on Saturday, instead of Sunday so we could head home and start cleaning.  On the phone with the doctor, we tried to come up with reasons why Noby’s lead level would be so high.  We decided that it could be a couple of things.  1.  When the house was being siding it could have caused a dust that settled in the house.  The doctor gave us a name of a cleaner to wash down all the walls and pretty much anything where dust can settle.  We also ordered a couple of hepa filters to help with the air.  2.  Ichiro and I realized that the doorways where the gates were in for the playroom had chipped paint.  It wasn’t like the entire doorway was chipping but we had the old fashion type baby gates in those doors and every time you took the down it had suctioned a little more of the paint off the walls.  So there were 4 circles in each door area that were chipping. So besides washing everything down with the cleaner, we were also going to repaint the door jams and add new permanent gates that screw into the walls. This will make sure that they do not chip anymore.

I’m sure you can imagine that this has been an emotional week for us, one of the main reasons I haven’t blogged in a while.  I keep reading about lead poisoning on the internet and of course I keep getting upset about it.  Is it our fault that Noby is sick, could it really cause all this permanent damage to him?  Ichiro keeps yelling at me for looking it up and getting upset.  But at the same time, as Noby’s mom, I need to know everything about it.

He is doing ok with the medicine, it does seems to be upsetting his stomach a bit but nothing that a few crackers can’t cure.  He of course hates the taste but doesn’t put up to much of a fight.

So that is that.  Please keep Noby in your thoughts and prayers.

Noby trying out the pony he got for Xmas!