Poked here and there and everywhere!

Poor Girl.

Thursday had another temp - daycare said it was 102.9 underarm just before I got there. She was super clingy and wouldn't even let go of the pacifier when I picked her up. Got her home shortly later and her temp was 101 rectal. We had planned on having Katie and Owen over that evening for dinner and a play date - and the food had already been ordered. We managed to get some ibuprofen down Laura and she actually perked up and we all had a pretty good evening.

She went down to sleep before 8pm and slept soundly for ... an hour. That was when she woke up screaming - and screaming - and screaming. I took her into bed with me and tried to calm her down - as only holding her helped. Richie took the couch for the night. She slept about another hour and then we tried to give her more ibuprofen. She fought it SO hard and cried the hardest I think she ever has. We couldn't calm her down. Then, about half way through the dose of medicine - she passed out on my lap. Just passed out fast asleep. She'd wake up whining occasionally, but overall the night was okay after that. She stayed in bed with me the whole time.

Friday morning. 102.3 rectal. Uh-oh. Our first thought - another UTI. Called at 7am and got her in with a doctor at 8:30am! (Did I ever mention I love that we can get in so easily at the peds office?!)

Anyways, I explain to this doctor (it was one we hadn't seen before) that I think she has a UTI. She explains that with her history, it doesn't make sense to even try a bag specimen because if it's dirty, then we have to cath - so might as well go for the cath right away. She then says "and lets just do a quick head to toe assessment to make sure nothing else is blatantly wrong".

Left ear - filled with wax and behind that - a big ol' busted ear drum. Yikes! How did we miss that? Once that wax was out there was quite a bit of clear/white drainage. I hadn't seen her pulling at her ears at all - although Richie claims he saw her do it a couple times. Poor thing - all week we thought it was teeth!

Does the "mommy guilt" ever go away? I feel like I should have seen something as obvious as an ear infection coming on.

So, Left perforated ear drum, but with UTI history - they still had to cath her. So, they did that and seh did surprisingly well with it.

The urine was clear! YAY!

Then the doctor came in and told me we had 3 options for treatment.
1) 3 days of shots
2) Shot of antibiotic that day, then follow with a week of oral meds
3) all oral meds
I had already explained to her how absolutely HORRIBLE it is to give Laura any meds by mouth. She talked to me like I was a child and had no idea ~how~ to give meds. "Well, once you get that syringe between her gums you just put it into her mouth one drop at a time and there is no way she can get it out. Of course, you don't squirt the whole dose in at once or you'll choke her." Um - okay - thanks for no help at all. And has she seen Laura take her meds? Because she certainly does get that syringe out from between her gums and RIchie and I end up both wearing medicine spit on our faces.

So, I choose option 1. Yes, I choose 3 days worth of shots. A few seconds of screaming three times is much better than 15 minutes of screaming twice a day for the next 10 days.

She then tells me I can't really choose option 1 becasue it's a Friday and there are no office hours on Sunday, so nobody to give the shot Sunday. This is where I tell her I'm a nurse and ask if I can do it at home. She looked suprised that I'd ask and then said "no". I asked why and she skirted around the answer with "Because you're mom" (whatever THAT means!) and "Because we wouldn't be there to monitor if she had a reaction". Ok, but you're not here to monitor if she has a reacation to the oral stuff either! Grr. So, I choose 1 shot and a week worth of meds.

She gets the (two) shots of rocephin (one in each leg) and we wait for 20 mintues - no reaction. We leave with the script for amoxicillin for 10 days and a followup in 1 week with her primary.

When I picked up her script yesterday, I also picked up a box of tylenol suppositories. I don't believe tylenol works as good as ibuprofen, but it's a heck of a lot easier to give and it'll at least work on any fevers and maybe take the edge off of whatever pain she has - teeth/ear/UTI whatever.

So, I repeat - poor girl - yesterday was not fun - ears prodded at, cathed, 2 shots, and a tylenol suppository to end the day with.

She woke up this morning totally acting her normal happy smiling babbling self! Woo!

Oh, but our success of the week... she takes whole milk now :) Straight! I didn't have to wean her by mixing the milk with my milk at all. She just took right to it. I had hoped I could go right to a sippy cup with the whole milk, but she's still using the bottle. Oh well, 1 change at a time I guess.