Prepare yourselves. This is just a negative Nancy post. I need to let it all loose on you guys!!!
This MONTH has been rough. Let me tell you about this month.
We have gone to about 10 (maybe more, but I’ve lost the ability to correctly count) doctor related appointments IN 22 DAYS.
A few weeks ago, Harper started to wake up in the middle of the night around 2-3 am screaming. She would be inconsolable sometimes. I recognized this as abnormal and my brain went back to her previous cyst discovery a couple of months ago. I thought surely it must be bothering her. To my advantage, our pediatric gynocologist forgot to order an ultrasound for her when we had an appointment with him a couple of months ago. I was able to call him and point out his mistake and promptly get Harper that ultrasound. Go me. Thanks for screwing up, doc. Guess what, It WAS bigger. I was right. Other than being right, that’s all the satisfaction I really got, because there’s not much to do about a cyst. Fast forward from the cyst to a couple of weeks ago. Harper was bipolar. She was happy, mad, sad, angry, hurt, flirty, then enraged all in about 15 minutes. Everyone noticed. So we scurried off to the doctor for her sick appointment, and Buddy’s well check appointment all wrapped up into 1. That was fun. I got the whole “Harper has something viral, keep doing what your doing…blah blah blah…tylenol every 4 hours for her fever….blah blah blah….Oh yea we are going to give Buddy FOUR shots”. We get home, all half dead, and try to get back to normal. Both kids had 103 fevers the next day and are summoned back to the doctors office to be told to continue doing what we are already doing. John goes on a guys lake weekend extravaganza while we all proceed to die at home. Luckily my mother in law was able to take Harper off my hands that night that John was gone. Buddy slept with me but did not sleep well at all. He had a raging fever from his shots and was up about every hour or two. That sunday, Harper was returned still feelin’ a little cruddy. She sounded cruddy too. SO WE GO BACK TO THE DOCTOR WITH 2 CHILDREN IN TOW. By we, I mean MYSELF. Harper has an ear infection. Great. We take home antibiotics. In a few days she starts to sleep through the night again, making me think she feels a little better or is just too tired from all of this sickness to rebel anymore.
I celebrate my ability to be a mother and have 2 tame children in the same room around wednesday of last week. Then my sick child sticks her pacifier in my well child’s mouth. I stop celebrating my short lived victory.
By that friday night, my little Buddy is awake every couple of hours coughing and sneezing.
On Saturday morning he is immediately sent to the doctor with The Daddy. I made that executive decision to skip the appointment. I deserve a break. When they return from their appointment, Buddy is visibly even more ill. He has a double ear infection. I am certain he is dying. I send his sister away to my mother in laws again and hold him ALL saturday. He gets worse. LIKE WAY WORSE. He is so hoarse he can’t cry, he just whines in the SADDEST SOUND YOU’LL EVER HEAR IN YOUR LIFE. I would compare it to the sound of a kitten dying. SO. SAD. I spent most of saturday cleaning massive amounts of vomit off the bed and crying while holding my sick baby. I’d done all I could except cry with him. So there we were. Crying together. I’d never experienced this type of sickness with Harper, she was lucky enough to live 366 days of her life illness free! I was NOT prepared for a sick baby. Harper returned on Sunday and everyone seemed to feel a little better, although not well.
Tuesday was Harper’s appointment with our geneticist. He was able to talk to us more about her syndrome and what we need to expect in her future and when tests needed to be performed. I alerted him that she had been waking up at night after we learned the cyst was larger, and that I thought it was bothering her. I also let him know about some suspect discharge she was having. When I say “I let him know” I mean, I was pushing him to get us more tests because I was sure she was about to start bleeding again. He saw that I was not a doctor and just let me know we would do the tests in a month or so, no urgency necessary. Ok.
Wednesday, Harper is spotting in her diaper. I promptly send the genetics doctor an “I TOLD YOU SO” email and called every single doctor that Harper has to get our tests ordered before I could make it to Children’s hospital. The cyst is bigger, but not ruptured, leading me to wonder if the blood is from her cycle. I still don’t know.
Thursday (aka yesterday) we encountered zero blood. That’s good, but I still have no idea what happened and am just scared it’s going to hit us all of a sudden full force again. I utilize our blood free day to take Buddy back to the doctor since he still has a fever and cough. Harper joins us since she also still has a fever, although, she acts like she feels good. The doctor told me that now THEY BOTH HAVE DOUBLE EAR INFECTIONS. Oh yeah, and we need to order a chest Xray for John tyler. That’s how bad his lungs sound. I cry. We figure out that he does not have pneumonia, but he does have something called bronchiolitis, it requires an inhaler. They both require different antibiotics since the previously ordered meds are not working.
Today is friday. Today I am not leaving the house. Okay technically I left the house once, but it was to purchase black out shades for the kids windows to increase nap time. If that’s not a step towards my well being, I don’t know what is.
Here are some pictures of my sick children:
birminghambell 