Last week, in my quick post, I mentioned that I was disappointed that I didn’t get to take many pictures of Christmas and I was hoping to take more over New Year’s weekend as we celebrated with R’s family.
Foiled again.
Now I’m super sad that there aren’t many pictures of Dexter’s first and Theo’s second Christmas. There are a few decent ones I will cling to for dear life, but this isn’t the post for that. This is the post where I talk about how bad New Year’s sucked.
Disclaimer first, though. I must say, my in-laws are amazing. Despite everything, they welcomed us to their home and fed and helped and fed and helped (and fed) us all weekend long. I don’t want my complaining to take away from everything they did and do for us, this weekend and always.
Okay. With that being said.
Thursday I had a not-so-fuzzy feeling about Dexter having a fever 3 days in a row.
Friday morning I took him to the doctor, where he was diagnosed with his first ear infection. I felt super proud of myself for following my hunch and relieved that he would get a few days of medicine in him before returning to the babysitter on Tuesday.
Friday afternoon, maybe 3-4 hours after his first dose of Amoxicillin, I noticed that the back of his head and neck were bright red and felt hot to the touch. We called the doctor. They said you don’t have an allergic reaction the first time you take a medication and it was probably related to his fever. Gave him some Ibuprofen and the fever and redness both went away.
We gave him his evening dose before bed. He was up from 12:30am-almost 3am Friday night/Saturday morning. Gross.
Saturday morning, we gave the Amoxicillin again. Saturday afternoon, his forehead, cheeks, scalp, neck and shoulders/upper back were red and splotchy looking. A pin prick type of rash popped up all over his chest and back. We called the doctor again and they said to skip his bedtime dose and see if the reaction was gone by morning. The splotchiness faded for a few hours, then came back in the evening.
Saturday night, he slept halfway decent. Halfway. Sunday morning, he still had splotchy areas on his shoulders and back, and a little bit on his chest.
Oh, Hello 2012. Go to hell.
The on call doctor wanted us to take him to Immediate Care because you can’t diagnose an allergic reaction over the phone. And you can’t change his medicine without a reason. And the reason would have to read: ALLERGIC TO PENICILLIN. Not really what we want this early in the game. We are extra thrilled about making a dent in our healthcare deductible right out of the 2012 gate, however. Sad face.
So, Sunday around 11am we took him to Immediate Care, where the doctor said that he didn’t think it was an allergic reaction, but he did think it was a side effect of the Amoxicillin. And although it didn’t seem to bother him, we may as well switch to a different family of antibiotics that he might tolerate better. Azithromycin it is.
We got back from Immediate Care at 1pm, just as Theo was waking up from his nap. His cheeks were bright red and felt hot. Yep. Fever. Gave him some Ibuprofen and called the doctor AGAIN with some questions I had about this new medicine. As I was on the phone, I overheard some conversation about Theo throwing up and saw my sister-in-law’s boyfriend cleaning up the aftermath. Sweet, sweet Bob.
Theo started a nice little junky cough. Sunday morning, Dexter had the first of many horrible, terrible, pitiful, scary, awful coughing fits.
No more splotchies, so I guess he can tolerate the medicine. Sunday night he was up until 3am.
Monday morning Dexter had another one of those fits that resulted in both of us being covered in an entire pouch of regurgitated pumpkin banana baby food breakfast. Sick (literally and figuratively).
Theo woke up ok on Monday but as the day wore on, he felt worse and his fever came back and his cough is still there. Dexter’s cough is getting worse. Monday night he was wheezing, but not having any trouble breathing. Oh and he was up til 3am again.
This is not conducive to harmonious family life. Not at all. This is stressful. This just sucks. I hate having sick kids and I hate having to go to work, leaving my sweet husband home alone to care for them by himself. It’s not fair to any of us, but I guess life’s not always “fair.”
I don’t even want to think about how much worse it could be because I’m hoping that things will get better soon. I am scared that Theo’s symptoms will get worse before they get better. I hope he doesn’t get an ear infection too.
Sigh. Why can’t things just turn out like you envisioned them sometimes? This was not how I envisioned 2012. If you’re still reading this long, not-very-exciting post, then you deserve something cute for your dedication. I can at least deliver that with some pictures of the boys.
