House of Sick

Claire has been very flushed lately. I was slightly freaked out it could be Scarlet Fever. She must sleep with her baby and some books. She is more insistent on this when over-tired and not feeling good.
She's been a little bit cranky and just wants to be held all the time. :(

We are all sick. Well, mildly...Josh and I both have a slight cold/headachey/coughy/sore throaty...Claire had a little runny nose and cough since about last Tuesday, when we went to the zoo. So maybe she picked up something else there? Or maybe she picked it up on Wednesday when we ate at Yats and explored Broad Ripple. Or maybe she got it at the airport on Thursday when we dropped off Anja and cruised around the shops there...plus I let her press lots of elevator buttons. Oh joy! Or maybe she got it from the shopping cart at Target where we went afterwards. Or maybe she got it from one of the approximately 10 garage sales we hit Friday morning....or maybe she got it from somewhere previously...or somewhere else I failed to mention visiting...but she woke up from a long, late nap Friday at about 5 pm. Ahh. Just in time for the doctors to be closed for a weekend. She felt REALLY hot. Her temp. was 102.6 the way you're supposed to take it for babies. Seriously...I need to buy an ear thermometer...why didn't I put one of those thingys on her baby registry for her shower? So Dr. H told me to alternate Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 3 hours and see what her temp was in the AM. So I did...it was 101 3 hours after a dose...so I took her to the urgent care clinic and baby got her first X-ray. Yikes.

Her ears looked fine. Her quick-strep was negative. But her oxygen saturation rate was low. It should be 100. Hers was about 90. The highest was 93. So they did chest Xrays to see if she had bronchitis. I got suited up in the apron, as well, and they tried to get me to hold her arms above her head while another lady held her waist still against the wall. Her lungs did not show bronchitis, RSV, pneumonia, etc...but they were concerned about her not breathing so well. Well, she had a sinus infection...duh...so they gave us amoxicillian and abuterol syrup Saturday. They told me to continue with the Tylenol regime to keep her fever down. Of course, she wasn't eating or drinking well...she ate maybe 2 animal crackers on Saturday all day. Luckily, she was still nursing, although not as much because she can't breathe and swallow at the same time so well. They told me to take her to the regular ped. dr. Monday if she was still running a fever...which she was.

So I got a 2pm slot with Dr. R today...their "only" opening...right. So he looked at her and again, ears looked great, but her Oxygen again, was not above 93. Her throat looked red, but not just from drainage. It also has small little white blisters, which is an indicator of herpangia (not to be confused with your heart getting herpes, lol) Read more about it here: http://www.drgreene.com/21_1113.html it's basically just a virus similar to the Hand, Foot, and Mouth one. LOVELY! So this is why she is still running a fever today of 99.9 WITH Tylenol. My poor little baby. :(

The urgent care clinic also called me and said that her long-strep/mono test were negative. Seriously...babies get mono! But it did show another bacteria: pseubomonas-like bacteria came back positive. Whatever that is. Lovely. Thank god for nursing or we would probably so have had to been to the hospital for dehydration or something worse. I really don't see a 22-month old doing well with an IV.

So we are going to lay low for a few days and catch up around the house until she gets better. Anyone want to come over for a playdate!?! LOL! You know the line..."they're not contagious after being on antibiotics for 24 hour rule..." Yeah...not always true. Come on, you know you want to come over tomorrow...instead of a chicken pox party, we can share sippys and suckers and have a herpangina party...come on! What's the difference? I know someone out there gave it to US...man...they need to make a vaccine against this, too. :)

So Dr. R. added another script on top of the other 2. It was "Mary's Magical Mouthwash" to help with the blisters and is basically something the pharmacist mixes. It's a combo of benadryl, cortisone, and nystatin. Fun, fun. So now I'm keeping track of three scripts, plus the OTC stuff. Hey, I though toddlers who were still nursing weren't supposed to get sick. Boo! Actually, maybe that's why she got sick...she nursed very little this week with all of our outings to the zoo, etc. Who knows...I'm off to bed myself. Night all!