Saturday, September 5, 2009

Oh, right

So I've forgotten that Blogger and facebook aren't a perfect overlap. If you're following on facebook, you're up to speed, roughly, on the crap in the past week + in our lives. If you're only reading here, you're totally in the dark on that and thinking only about Elizabeth's first week and what trouble Andrew might have gotten himself into with his new movements. So, a quick catch up.

Elizabeth started school last Monday, the 24th, and it seemed to all go well. She happily went to school each day, chatted animatedly about each day, and just seemed to adjust well. Thursday evening, though, she just lost it at dinner, which I thought meant she had just hit a wall of too much stimulation and was overtired. She was restless that night, woke up slightly warm, and after a dose of tylenol, we decided to send her to school. Got the call from the school nurse at 3 pm, 15 minutes before the end of the day - please come pick her up (I was already walking to school for pick up), she has a temperature of 102.8. Yikes! So we had a fairly miserable weekend, with her tracking a pretty high fever all weekend long and us alternating doses of Motrin and Tylenol. We canceled plans, missed a birthday party, canceled dinner with my brither and his family, and generally stuck close to the couch and the TV. And not sleeping at night. This past Monday, got in to see the doctor. We'd been asing Elizabeth what, if anything, hurt, and she could never really say. So imagine my surprise when she turned out to have a raging strep throat infection.

I was kinda pleased with my facebook update - making t-shirts that said, I went to school for 4 days and all I got was this lousy strep throat.

Now, one of my facebook friends from childhood remembered that strep was my nemesis growing up - I was a regular, at least twice per year. Let's hope Elizabeth hasn't picked that up from me.

So at least we got (a very strong dose of) antibiotics, and she was cleared to go back to school by Wednesday.

Tuesday, coincidentally, we had Andrew's nine month check up. The big news is his head has finally caught up with me and Elizabeth - she was off the charts in head size from birth on, whereas we've called Andrew peanut head since he was average. Now he's at 90th percentile, too - and 75th for weight (22 lb 13 oz) and 50th for height (28 inches). The doctor Tuesday suggested a strep test just to be sure, and it was negative. They drew blood and he had his Hep vaccine and the first of the regular seasonal flu shots (first time in your life you have a flu shot, you need two doses). The bloodwork showed his white count was slightly elevated, which the doctor said indicated fighting an infection, and she asked if he had been sick, which he had not, though I wondered if that explained his recent sleeplessness. He was fine Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday, but woke in the middle of the night Wednesday/Thursday with a fever. We thought maybe we'd wait and see, and he seemed ok Thursday, but we had a miserable night with him, so back to the doctor we went on Friday. I was positive he had strep, too, but surprisingly the test was negative. So we got the generic tylenol/motrin, rest, plenty of fluids talk. He work this morning with no fever, so I thought it was over, but as the day continued the fever returned. So who knows what tonight will bring.

Overall, E is pretty much recovered, and hating finishing her course of antibiotics. But of course we have several more days to complete. A is still alternating Tylenol and Motrin, and we hope is on the way to recovering. A good, solid night of sleep remains an elusive dream.

Meanwhile, Andrew continues his exploration of the world - and has figured out how to flush the toilet!

3 comments:

Mom said...

Yes, I remember well the bouts of strep throat with you. The doctor said at one point--the next time we'll see about taking out her tonsils. Suprisingly, you never had strep again. Hope things are better now. Mom

Rachel et Natalie said...

must not have been a fun week...
I hope they are both feeling better and that you and Rich will get a good night sleep as well

Laurie said...

I hope there are uninterrupted nights of sleep and healthy kids in your immediate future! No fun!