Turtle bacteria

I have learned that some topics of discussion that normally are off limits, are no longer off limits as a mother. One of those topics being bowel movements, diarrhea, and poop! It’s exciting stuff, I know!

Don’t worry, I’m not writing today to tell horror poo stories (however, I have quite a few if you really want to hear them!) but rather to tell you that we have FINALLY found out what has been wrong with Jake the past 2 weeks and has been giving him what we will kindly call, “explosive diarrhea” (ED).

I receive a phone call from our nurse on Tuesday which started quite interestingly. We said our hellos, to which she then asked, “Do you have turtles?” My response (as your’s is probably the same right now) was, “HUH?”. She said that there was good news and bad news. Jake’s latest lab results showed an answer for what is causing his 2-week bout with ED but they weren’t quite sure how he got it.

Jacob was diagnosed with Aeromonas. It is a species of bacteria that is present in all freshwater. Some strains are capable of causing illness in fish and amphibians (turtles), as well as humans who may acquire infections through open wounds or by ingestion of sufficient number of the organisms in food or water. So…now we knew “What” it was! The doctor wondered if we had turtles that Jake may have played with and gave him the bacteria. Since we don’t have turtles, we were still left pondering “How” in the world he got it. The doc prescribed antibiotics and hopefully this will help.

Scott and I have been scratching our heads since Tuesday, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to how Jake got this bacteria. The only thing we can come up with is that when we were at Red Lobster for dinner, (no, Jake didn’t have fish…just mac & cheese) his plate must have been cross contaminated by the cooks handling the fish. We are not positive, and more than 2 weeks after the fact, we can’t be certain, but at this point it’s the only explanation we can come up with.

Jake is now on his way to recovery. He is feeling better, and the ED has now under control. Thank goodness! So…how soon can we start potty training????? : )