Mila's Ear Infection

Wow.  So I forgot about blogging for a little while.  Sorry 'bout that!

The past two months have been a little stressful with Mila.  She's had an ear infection that just will not go away.  She had two different oral antibiotics, then we tried the shot and now she is on Augmentin.  They gave her a crazy high dose, so she has an upset stomach and lots of diarrhea.  Like five times a day.  We started the newest med this past Thursday, so the diarrhea didn't get going until Friday night.  Since I was around to keep an eye on her, I was able to change her diaper the moment I heard her blowin' it up.  By Saturday morning she'd developed a rash I'd never seen before - some in her diaper, some down her leg.  I called our pediatrician's nurse help line.  The nurse was unsure what to do, so he called the doctor, who in turn said to bring her in if it got worse.  At that point, we didn't know if it was diaper rash (why would it be down her leg?) or an allergic reaction.  Sunday afternoon it seemed to be getting better so we didn't bring her in.

Monday (yesterday) evening, Mila's teacher told me she had horrible diaper rash.  I looked at it as soon as we got out to the car and sure enough, it had gotten worse.  Raw, broken skin.  It looked bloody, but there was no blood in her diaper.  I ran through the McDonald's drive-thru for Aiden, dropped off the casserole I had brought down at my friend's mom's house (her husband died a couple weeks ago) and then headed to Pediatric Urgent Care.  

We walked in the door at 5:45.  I guess I've never been on a Monday evening, because that place was FULL.  Every chair was filled.  I guess I have seen it that way, but Aiden was over a year old, so I took him to the regular urgent care clinic next door.  I checked in Mila, Aiden made friends with one of the kids waiting (who was thankfully in for a bug bite, not a sickness) and we started our wait.  

You know in the movies, when there's a couple at a restaurant and some family is letting there child run around screaming, dragging their spoon on the back of everyone's chairs?  Well that kid was in the waiting room last night.  See here for more info.  He was around 2 years old, shoeless and wild.  His mom kept trying to hold him on her lap to keep control, but he would just flail and scream.  Then she'd give up for a bit and he'd crawl under all the chairs in the room, putting anything he could find in his mouth.  He made it to the end of the chairs and another lady in the waiting room said, "Uh.  He just put an orange peel in his mouth."  The mom grabbed him when he crawled back and proceeded to pull out the orange peel, 5 fruit snacks and a rock.  Thankfully he's was the first to get called in back.

Mila peed through her diaper onto my lap twice.  I don't know why the diapers decided to stop working.  Maybe they weren't on tight enough?  Both times, I had to take her out to the car because I hadn't brought in any diapers.  I don't carry a diaper bag with me during the week because we just go to daycare and back.  I keep a couple extra in the trunk of my car for situations like this.  But each time I had to go out, I was trying to hurry so I didn't miss getting called in back.  I was out in the sun on Sunday without sunscreen so my shoulders are burnt.  I was carrying my purse on my shoulder, plus Mila will not sit on my hip because it hurts her too much.  Instead she clings to my shoulders like a baby monkey.  Normally it wouldn't be so bad.  With fried shoulders it's a little uncomfortable.

I was next in line to be called in back and a family comes running in carrying a limp child who's eyes are rolling back in his head.  I'm not a doctor, but that seemed more like a trip to the ER or maybe even taking a ride in the ambulance.  Anyway, obviously that kid got to go ahead of us.  

FINALLY at 7:30 we got called back.  The nurse took Mila's vitals and the doctor walked in right away.  She took one look at her and prescribed two ointments.  She took a sample to run a culture to check for staph.  We are medicating for staph anyway, since the culture won't be ready to read until Wednesday.  So!  Over to Walgreen's.  

I checked in at 8 o'clock (Aiden's bedtime and an hour after Mila's) with the pharmacist.  She said one of the meds needed to be compounded and it would take 30 minutes.  I pulled the car around to a spot, gave Mila a blanket and Aiden my phone (thank goodness for YouTube) and waited again.  I pulled into the drive-up at 8:30 and they said it would be another moment.  Fifteen minutes later another car pulled up behind me and I decided to drive around so that car could be helped.  At 9 pm, they gave me the medications.  The pharmacy tech said, "Sorry you had to wait so long.  We don't mix up that ointment until the customer arrives because of cost reasons."

If that glass was not there I think I would have slapped that woman.  If I would have known that, then I would have sat at that window from the start.  I only pulled around so other people could get through.  I was too irritated (sunburnt, tired, hungry, two tired/cranky kids) to go sit inside.  I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she was making up excuses for why it took so long.

Despite eating 5 of Aiden's leftover fries and 4 whole Jolly Ranchers, I was starving.  I just wanted to go home, gorge myself, and sleep.  What I really did was go home, get the kids ready for bed, medicate Mila (pure torture for her and me), eat a cup of couscous salad while watching some news coverage on the horrific Boston bombing, listen to Travis while he showed me how to use a lock box he bought that day (I'll try to remember to write about that later), clean up the house, THEN get ready for bed. 

My dad said parenting is perseverance.  True dat.

These doctor appointments for Mila are $30 a pop.  She has had 5 appointments for her ears and diaper rash.  Plus antibiotic costs.  It's been an expensive venture.  Thankfully Mila is our problem child since our income is a little healthier than it was when we had Aiden.  

Ugh, I'm cranky today.