Bad Karma Strikes and I Claim My Place in the Family Infirmary

I exposed my sick child to other people and their children today, so I guess I deserve to claim my spot in the family infirmary now. After all, what goes around comes around, right? I have had quite the headache for the past several hours now and am feeling pretty sick at my stomach, too. After watching Zachary throw up all day, though, is it any wonder why???

Poor Zachary has not been able to keep anything down all day. After cancelling our lunch plans, Zachary was very sad when I told him we'd be staying home instead of riding the Zilker Park train as planned. After each episode he had of throwing up, I'd say it again, "I promise we'll go next week when you're feeling better!" But that did not ease his troubled little heart. At one point, while sitting on the floor next to the toilet, he offered this impassioned plea: "Mommy, I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of, but the sickness is just not going away!" Who likes to see a kid have to work so hard, and despite all his efforts, feel like he has failed? Not me. I know there will definitely be times where I have to put my foot down and keep him home when he is sick, but I didn't feel like this HAD to be one of those times. He wanted to go so badly, and he was even wearing his little train conductor's hat and bandana and looked so cute, I figured we could give it a shot. I packed up an extra shirt and towels just in case and we headed down to the park, but not before Zachary eagerly offered a prayer that he would not throw up and have to miss the train.

After arriving at the park, we bought our train tickets but had a little time to play at the park before its departure. Zachary was all over that park and seemed to be happy despite not feeling well. We played so much that we almost MISSED our train. We boarded right as the conductor yelled, "All aboard!" and took off in a matter of seconds. We were lucky that we made it. That was close! It was a beautiful day outside, but the wind was blowing pretty hard, so I spent half the time shielding my eyes and mouth from the flying dirt and grit, but the kids enjoyed themselves. Zachary was sad, though, that we didn't see Woody this time (a man who hangs out along the route playing his guitar and harmonica.) Apparently, Woody was a significant part of what made the train so fun the first time and the reason why Ashley insisted on bringing their harmonica (though I made her leave it in the car.) We played a little more in the park before Zachary found a spot atop one of the slides and laid down. I told him, at that point, that we needed to go home so he could rest. We managed to get through our outing just before Zachary's stomach began acting up again. On the way home, I tried to supervise his next episode while driving along the toll road. I came prepared, though, and he was covered in a towel and the car was spared. He looked pretty bad at that point, so I asked him, "Do I need to take you to the doctor?" He replied (weakly), "Don't be so rude!"

We made it home and Zachary rested all afternoon while I worried about what more serious ailment he could possibly have than the innocuous 24-hour stomach bug that Ashley had over the weekend. I was looking up appendicitis when a friend suggested that a way to tell if a kid has that is to straighten out his leg and push firmly on his heel as though I'm trying to push his leg into his pelvis. Does that not sound HORRIBLE?! At the time, Zachary was sleeping, so I waited until he woke up to inflict more pain on him. First, I asked him if he felt better (he said "yes") and asked him if his stomach hurt, while I pressed lightly on it (he said "no") and then I straightened his leg and inflicted the torture, which only resulted in Zachary throwing up all the water he had drunk over the 2 hours prior. He was holding NOTHING down. I hate to see anyone so sick.

Chris got home around 5:30 and after a few minutes, I went and lied down to see if I could shake the headache that had crept in over the course of the afternoon. He was so good to watch the kids while I ended up sleeping all evening. I didn't feel much better when I got up a few hours later, but maybe this will pass by the morning. Worse than taking care of sick kids (or husbands) is caring for them when you are also feeling yucky. So, with that, I'm going to sign off and get myself ready for bed and pray that this is gone when I wake up.

Mindbender

If it looks like barf and it smells like barf, I have no trouble identifying it as barf. But if it doesn't LOOK like barf, and it doesn't smell like ANYTHING, but your kids says it IS barf...do you believe your kid and treat him like he's sick? I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around that one.

This morning, Zachary seemed to be feeling fine, but a short while later, I found him hugging the toilet and saying that he already barfed 3 times: once in the bathroom, once in the living room and once on himself. First of all, I had to go LOOKING for it, and when I did, it just looked like water and I cleaned it up. Despite myself, I went ahead and sniffed at the clear wet spot on his shirt and was puzzled that it smelled just like water.

We had plans today to meet a friend downtown for lunch. We were just going to meet at McDonald's since that's what is most kid-friendly and she works nearby. I figured I'd take advantage of an opportunity and take the kids to ride on the train at Zilker Park, which is just down the road from where we were meeting, afterward. As long as the "barf" episode was an isolated one, I figured we could let it slide (no pun intended) and continue on our way. I bathed the kids, asking Zachary every few minutes if he felt alright and if he still wanted to go on our outing. He seemed fine and said he did. I dressed Ashley first and then went back and got him. His face looked a little pale, but I dressed him and told him to go put on his shoes. That's when Episode 2 occurred. I witnessed it with my own eyes, so I called my friend, cancelled our lunch plans and told the kids we had to stay home today. Of course, by THAT point, Zachary seems like himself again and is sorely disappointed about having to miss the train.

So there's my dilemma: If I hadn't already called my friend to cancel, I might have kept those plans, too, but I guess it's better that we not get our friend sick or risk Episode 3 occurring in a public eating establishment. On the other hand, I'm going against my better judgment and am taking the kids to ride the train anyway. I'll pack an extra shirt and a towel in the diaper bag, and what's the worst that could happen? Guess we'll find out...or, hopefully, we WON'T. Am I terrible?

Superbug

I got the call back from the doctor's office this morning, and Ashley's culture came back positive for MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.) It is a skin infection that is caused by a type of staph bacteria that has become resistant to many types of antibiotics similar to penicillin. It's pretty serious stuff actually, so we were very fortunate to catch this when we did. Had this gone on for awhile without treatment, the infection could have become much more serious. Because the test results take several days to come back, doctors will prescribe MRSA-fighting antibiotics if they suspect it, and that's exactly what ours did. So, Ashley just has to continue taking the same stuff this week and hopefully that will completely take care of the infection. I am so thankful that she seems to be feeling better this week and that the sore on her foot looks like it is healing.

Infected

Ashley has been suffering from a nasty cold for several days now and has had a mild rash on her face to go along with it. For the past 2 days, she has been unusually fussy, and last night, I caught her touching her hands to her ears and immediately I began to be paranoid that she might have an ear infection. Since Zachary has only had one ear infection so far and Ashley hasn't had one at all yet, I'm always afraid that if my kids had one, I would miss it.

My mom suggested I might take Ashley to the doctor to have her checked out, but I'm always hesitant. I hate the thought of spending money on an unnecessary doctor visit when there is really nothing that can be done. But, of course, I don't hate that any more than I hate having to watch my kids suffer. Sometimes it is better to go ahead and make the call or take them in even if only for a little peace of mind.

We were at Zachary's swimming lesson yesterday and Ashley was very cranky, and while I normally take her to the park and push her on the swings during that half-hour, today she wasn't enjoying it like she normally does. We went to sit in the air-conditioned car for the remainder of the lesson, and she looked and was acting just miserable. I decided I'd better make the call.

Just as I was dialing the number to the office, I noticed something about Ashley's foot. A couple of weeks ago, she got sores on each of her feet from wearing water socks all day at Schlitterbahn. The tags inside the water socks rubbed the skin off, creating some painful-looking sores, but both seemed to be healing just fine, or so I thought. It was right then that I noticed that one of the sores had developed a slight bit of an infection. One more thing to ask about, I thought, but I was sure that it was no big deal. If it weren't for Ashley being sick, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. I certainly wouldn't have given it a second thought if it was on MY foot.

I finally called, and as I thought, there was no reason to bring her in over this cold and rash, but for the foot, she had to be seen. I thought that was sort of ironic. Here she's had this horrible cold and is MISERABLE and I need to take her in for the FOOT!?? Totally unexpected.

We went to the appointment, and the nurse had to hold Ashley's foot still so the doctor could puncture the skin with a needle and squeeze out some liquid to take a culture for testing. Of course, you can imagine how well Ashley liked that. She was on my lap and I really had to restrain her to keep her from hurling herself out the door. After it was over, the doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics that she has to be on for the next 10 days, and that's just until they know what sort of bacteria it is. We will know in 3 days, and presumably they will give her another prescription for something to fight the specific strain causing the infection. While we were there, I had the doctor check her ears, and she said both looked good. Whew!

I thanked the doctor as she was about to leave. Neither she nor I expected what happened next. Ashley, too, said, "Dankooo!" It was a proud moment for me that my daughter would thank the doctor after causing her so much pain. Of course, she could have just been mimicking me, but she said it with such sincerity. Maybe she really was just thankful that the doctor was going to leave her alone. I don't know, but she was so cute about it. Later, in the car, she kept saying, "Bye doctors!" over and over again. She seems to be doing better and has been resting, but we'll see how cooperative she is when she starts those antibiotics in the morning!