A Bunch Of Sickos

The winter colds and flus have come early to our house this year. Between me recovering from a minor surgery and Emme having surgery to get stents in her tear ducts then shortly after us all getting sick sick sick, October has not been in our favor. I love fall and all the fun activities that go with it, but this year we have been watching the leaves float to the ground while laying on the couch. Gregg has once again proved worthy of being a great husband and dad by cleaning up throw up twice (one mine and one Emme's) and holding Emme all night while sitting up so she could breath and get some rest. Being sick while being a mom proves to be a thousand times harder than before. Not to mention having a poor sick baby at the same time. Hopefully the Alexander house will get back to normal soon and we will return to the real world. I have too many products that are half done and a ton that haven't even got started. So watch out for us in the future. We're gonna blow yo' mind. But don't hold your breath.

The picture of Emme is of her playing with toys while in the pre op room before surgery. I love that she gives loves to all babies fake or real. That girl is too cute.

Tubes

At the end of June we were finally able to get tubes in Emme's ears. All went well and we had a good experience.  I only wish they'd let us keep the hospital outfit because she looked so dang cute in it.  Emme was grumpy after they woke her up, but it was mainly due to her being hungry. After we got food down her she was fine and back to normal. A girl after my own heart.  The surgery was so fast I barely had a chance to get on Facebook before the doctor came to talk to us.  

One thing that was cool was her anesthesiologist told us both of his kids were adopted and he only had a days notice for one of them. For some reason this made me feel safer knowing my child was in his care. Maybe because I felt more connected to him. Funny how knowing others have adopted makes you automatically understand them and all they've been through. 

Emme has had one infection since the tubes, but it was so nice just to do drops instead of taking her to the doctor and doing an antibiotic that makes her sick. It confirmed to me even more that it was a wise decision to put tubes in her ears. 

Rough Week

I had every intention of getting my blogging on last week. That is until I started getting sick Friday night. I kept feeling worse and worse all night and decided I better call and cancel my Saturday appointments at work because I had the flu. Sunday I awoke to a little rash, but thought it was eczema and moved on with my day. My flu symptoms dissipated within a few hours and I no longer felt achy or chilled. How lucky to have such a fast flu, right? Sunday night I couldn't sleep due to my back killing and my little rash burning. In the morning I had a similar rash on my back where it had hurt really bad all night. I could tell something wasn't right. My arm had felt funny for days. Like I had been attacked by fiberglass or something.

Out of the blue a thought popped into my head. "SHINGLES"

I knew very little of Shingles, so I decided to look it up online. Sure enough all the symptoms fit. One thing stood out to me which was that I could spread Chickenpox to those who have never had them. UH OH. Emme had been with me that whole time.

An emotional phone call to my brother in law confirmed it sounded like Shingles. He made me feel better, by telling me it would be hard to pass to Emme. Not impossible, but she would actually have to touch the rash with her mouth.

I went to my doctor and sure enough...Shingles.

I found out you have to catch Shingles within 48 to 72hrs of getting the rash in order to be a candidate for the antiviral pills. The pills stop the virus in it's tracks. The doctor said he normally sees patients when it is too late and that I was lucky I found it so fast. PHEW! The rash did quadruple in size, but it could have been SO much worse. {I'll spare pictures.} He also told me it's pretty uncommon to happen at my age. Little does he know I'm living in body forty years my senior right now. I really think Lupron has a lot to do with it. Side effects are low immune system and anxiety which can bring out Shingles.

Last week was exhausting to say the least. Emme had her shots on Monday and didn't sleep well for three nights. I don't know why they affected her so bad this time, but they did. Good news is her ears were finally clear. We're still going to an ENT though. When she was sleeping I was awake due to the steroids they had me taking. Not to mention I worked a ton to make up for the Saturday I rescheduled. I can never say enough how lucky I am to have Gregg. Most humans would have threw in the towel.

I'm on the mend thanks to the divine inspiration to look up Shingles. It was a crummy situation, but one more opportunity to grow and rely on the spirit. Without that, I could have suffered a lot worse.

I wanted to add a picture of my daffodils. We have tons of these right now. They've had quite the beating with snow, but seem to be hanging in there.

Sick

This is what a month of ear infections makes our counter look like. Emme has been on four different kinds of antibiotics in her short life. Some she has taken a couple times.

The most recent one, Augmentin, has ripped her stomach to shreds. Maybe that's a little dramatic, but I'm pissed. Anyway, it has been making her throw up every last nano piece of food. I called the Dr's office yesterday and they had never heard of such a thing. The said to half the doses and spread them out, but what do ya know...about a half hour after the weekend shift was over she threw up again. Uuuuggg! So we decide there is no way we are giving her any more Augmentin.

First thing this morning I called to see what needed to be done. {Do we need to go in? Can we just have a new prescription called in?} A nurse that was very short with me tried to convince me Emme was just gagging on the taste. Yeah I'm not an idiot lady! Even my 6 year old niece could tell the difference between a gag and a full out puke fest!! Especially when it was happening 15 to 20 min after she ate. After she got all the info she said she would let the doctor know and have her call me back.

Four Freaking O' Clock rolls around and still no word!!! Mind you my poor baby still has an ear infection and has thrown up all her food including antibiotics. I call the office and I'm ready to get all WWE on their faces {have I mentioned I have feisty issues at the moment?} but I don't...the receptionist took my info and I once again wait to hear back from the doc.

An hour and a half later I FINALLY get a call from the nurse with a quick "I called in a prescription for you, okay bye." Wow, I didn't realize something like that took eight hours to accomplish. Come to find out Augmentin is the worst on stomachs and also explains Emme's explosive diarrhea at the moment. She's had many many baths these days.

Poor girl has been sick for a month now. I just want my Emme back. The one that kicks and squeals each time we see her.

I think it's time to see an ENT.