The Miracle of Modern Medicine

I am slowly recovering from my awful throat. I personally think it was strep (official results back this monday). Last Tuesday, the fever came...103.5 at its highest. I was popping advil like a mad woman. And the throat just kept getting worse. By Wednesday, The glands in my neck swelled up and the pain started moving to my ears. I could barely swallow. Even touching the outside of my neck hurt.

Luckily, I got in to see the doc on wednesday. She took a culture for strep and immediately started antibiotics. Like flipping a switch, the symptoms started lessening. Now, fever's gone, and the swelling is down (but not gone). Swallowing is uncomfortable but not painful. As it appoaches time for my next antibiotic pill, symptoms get worse, so I know its not 100% gone, but I'm finally back to feeling like a human being.

Which started me feeling so, so greatful that I live in a time, when antibiotics are readily available and work. What did those poor souls do before they were invented? So, that's that.

We have a fairly slow weekend planned with nothing on the agenda. I'll be busy thanking my lucky stars for the miracle of modern medicine.

...and T remains healthy as a horse (knocking on wood as I type this)!

weekend happenings

After our drama at the Eye ER, the rest of the weekend went smoothly. On Sunday T went to a Bday party for another little girl in her camp at Dandy Bear. Picture a D@ve and Busters or Boomers for little kids, complete with a jungle gym/obstacle course thing that spans about 3/4 of a football field. She had a BLAST. Pictures to come.

On monday, we start intensive swim class. One week of one on one instruction in a friend's pool. T already knows how to swim, but is a one-breath wonder. She's an excellent swimmer ...that is, until her one breath runs out. I'm hoping that this coming week she will learn to take a breath while swimming.

Also, not this friday but next, if the big end of year show for the summer camp. We're all very excited. T will be reprising her role as the Spanish Rose. This year, there are about 3 Flamenco (or according to T, "flamingo) dances in the show. I suspect my little star will be shining!

More Fun with Doctors

It's 12:00 a.m. friday night....Do you know where your child is?

Mine was in the Bascom Palmer ER partying with the doctors. Now what, you ask?

Well, I've been meaning to take her to the eye doctor for a while, b/c she is constantly saying that her eyes, especially the left one, itches. Sometimes when she watches TV, she also looks out the side of her eye as if trying to look around something blocking her vision. The pediatrician suggested it might be allergies, so we tried OTC remedies for a few weeks to no avail. Suddenly on friday night for the first time, T started complaining that that same eye was now burning and she couldn't open it. Oy.

Since one of the best eye clinics in the country is literally in our backyard, and since they conveniently have an ER, off we went. We got there about 6:30, and didn't get out of there til slightly after midnight. Not sure why it took so long since there werent that many people there, but there you go.

Nothing big was diagnosed. They said it looked like there were allergies and noticed some irregularities in her optic nerve that may in the future make her more prone to glaucoma in her older age (which calls for monitoring), and gave us a referral to a specialist to sort it all out.

Miraculously, the "stinging eye" cleared up around 8:00 p.m., when T was bored out of her mind from waiting, and after she had lost interest in the 3D magazine and glasses they provided in the waiting room.

One Ringee Dingee....Two Ringee Dingee...

Hold the phone, everybody!!!! T has learned my cell phone number!

To help her practice, I let her use the home phone (which I'm not bothering making her learn since I pretty much just use my cell phone) and call my cell phone.

Now, she'll sneak and get the home phone, and call me from another room. Usually, her own.

"Hi mama, can I have some milk?"

"Hi mama, can I have a snack?"

Its the funniest thing!

When it Rains, it Pours

Yep, its raining here this morning. Kind of looks outside how we all feel around here. In a word: shitty. I was sick all last week with a terrible throat and cough. I'm now on the mend. Last night around 1000 pm, the aid called to say my dad was talking trash to her. Nothing nasty, just inappropriate. Dot went over there to sleep. His doc prescribed us some new medicine that we are praying will help the situation. Of course, we have to get it in him first, which will be a HUGE task.

Then, T and I wake up this morning and she's burning up with fever. Also for the first time ever, she is complaining of a splitting headache. we were in the dr office at 800 a.m. I informed them that I had given her tylenol at 700 a.m., and they ask you mean acedominifen? Uh, I don't know, it was tylenol. What brand they ask. Tylenol. I'm now getting the vibe that something is wrong, and so I screech out...but it was children's of course.

Um, turns out both children's tylenol and children's motrin have been recalled. The doc say it must have been an old bottle, which it was. Turns out it was recalled b/c there was no consistency in dosage in the bottles. Some had too much medicine in them, and some had too little. Oy. Who knew? They kindly gave me some children's advil.

The doc deduced that T is suffering from the common cold and not menengitis As some of you may know...I'm freakily paranoid about that disease as I grew up hearing stories of my dad's sister dorothy (of whom Dot is named after). The first Dorothy died in the 1930's at age 13 of menengitis. Came home with fever and all thought she just had a cold. She was dead 2 days later. My paranoia is the poor doc's problem, and poor T gets dragged to the doctor anytime she has a high fever. Her complaint of head pain sealed the deal. A 10 buck co-pay is nothing compared to my peace of mind.

So, since like a moron I promised T a new DS game since she was sick and we couldn't do anything fun today, we stopped off at target. T said she was hungry and wanted a hot dog. I figured the meds kicked in finally, despite being recalled, and she was feeling better. So, we went to the counter to buy it. While standing there, poor T yells that she as thrown up. Sure enough, the poor child had upchucked right in the foodline. Luckily , the store was empty. Poor T, she hasn't thrown up since she was 18 months old. After cleaning that up, we passed on the hot dog, purchased the game, and are now at home eating toast.

Just another day in the life, right?

Rough Week

Well, we've been AWOL from the ol' blog, as last week was a really rough week. It started on Sunday. My mother almost died. Luckily, we were at the house for our usual Sunday of checking up on them.

We looked at mom, and realized that she was making a really funny face with her mouth. It was like all scrunched up. We tried to get her to say something, but she couldn't open her mouth at all. She then started looking really upset, with her eyes opened really wide. Took her blood pressure, and it was through the roof. Its usually normal. Her pulse was racing was well. We started taking it every 5 minutes, and it seemed to be coming down. We thought she was having another stroke and placed a call to hospice to come out and eval and admit her. It was clear, though, that while she couldn't speak or open her mouth, she was aware what was going on b/c she could blink on command. Well, as she was waiting, her body started shaking...her arms, her legs, her feet.
We said screw it and called 911. Paramedics arrived and discovered her blood glucose level was 17. Dangerously low.

They immediately administered an IV glucose bag and it was like flipping a switch. She turns to the paramedic and asks, "What's your name". Anyway, they transported her and she was admitted to the hospital. Turns out she had a really bad bladder infection which was unbeknownst to us all. No fever or any other symptoms. She was released on Thursday and came back home.

Still no word on why her blood glucose dropped like a rock. We are awaiting all kinds of obscure blood tests coming back. She's on antibiotics to clear the infection, and is otherwise pretty much the same.

Meanwhile, Dot and I are exhausted.

Good news is that we were able to switch out her alternating air mattress that we bought a few weeks ago that never worked. With pressure from some hospital personnel, they exchanged it at no cost for a better one. The better one also has a gel mattress to it, so that if you lose power, she's not laying on the bed springs.

So, there you have it. We're trying to destress from our awful week by going down to the roller rink for a little fun. My office let me go home early yesterday at noon. I headed out to midtown and had a margarita and guac lunch at a high-end mexican restaurant...Mercadito. Delish. I then walked off my buzz blessedly ALONE in t@rget and M@rshall's Home Goods. It turned into a mommy day and I had a fab time...despite the fact that I think I'm getting sick. Isn't that always the case? Once the stress is over, somebody ends up sick. Looks like its me this time as a sore throat is coming on.