Another Sickie

Last night, I baked a bunch of potatoes for a baked potato bar for dinner. The Warden walked in after work and announced that he wanted to take us to dinner, so we got in the car and headed for IHOP. At the IHOP in Hillsboro, kids eat free every night of the week, so that's where we headed.

On our way, from the back seat, we get the report that one of the kids is "being gross." The Warden and I agree that we need to crack down on this kind of behavior from this particular child and since we have to go pick up one of our cars from the shop and will thus have two cars for the evening, one of us will drive said child home--no second chances.

We get to the shop to pick up the car, all of the other kids get out, and we jump in the newly repaired van. The "gross" child doesn't even argue. Hmm....Strange. The Warden takes the child home.

I take the rest of the kids to dinner--bummer when it was the Warden's idea. We eat and go home. I order something huge, and when I order, I ask for half of it to be placed in a box to take home for the Warden. It's a rather quiet dinner with only part of our crew there.

When I get home and present the Warden with his dinner, he shares with me that the child he took home was nearly asleep in the car before they even got home. Very weird. I go upstairs, and sure enough, that child is fast asleep.

Around 10:30pm, after the other kids and I finish folding laundry, while watching our nightly episode of "The Biggest Loser" on Netflix, the child wakes complaining of being unable to swallow. I look and sure enough, the child's glands are huge as are the tonsils--to the point of crowding the uvula. Eek!

I call the advice nurse and am told to put the child in the bathroom with the shower running so there will be some steam to help bring the swollen tonsils down a bit. We make an appointment for this afternoon, but I am told that I can take the child to the nurse treatment room to get a throat culture done any time.

I opt to go the throat culture route, so at 9am, we go in. The child stands next to me as we wait to sign in and shivers--noticeably shaking. The test comes back negative for strep, but they will culture it for 24 hours. In the meantime, I go up to our pediatrician's office and speak to our doctor's assistant. She had called while we were getting the culture done, not even knowing we were there, wanting to know about faxing some physical forms for sports and scouts and when they were due. I decide to go see her and answer her questions after we're done at the lab.

We do, and next thing we know, she has us talking to an advice nurse about the sick child and the next thing we know after that, we are in an exam room with a doctor who's had some no-shows. I'm guessing it was pretty clear by the way the sick child was leaning on me that things were not okay. I express gratitude to all of them for making things work so well for our child.

Although the immediate lab test came back negative, the doctor gives me the option of administering antibiotics until we know the results of the 24 hour test. If that test comes back negative, we stop the antibiotics. If it comes back positive, we continue. If symptoms worsen within the next two or three days, I take the child back in.

I ask the doctor to prescribe medicine without red dye. She tells me to speak to the pharmacist about this, and if they have a better solution, she will change her order. After requesting that of the pharmacist, it takes a bit of time, but we come across the answer to the red dye problem--the child will have to take the medicine in capsule form. Who knew it would be so tricky to find something without Red 40 in it?

Since the tonsils are as huge as they are, I'm doubting the child will be able to get the capsules down, so we'll sprinkle them on applesauce and administer it that way. I'm remembering my mom doing that for us kids with ice cream and cold medicine that looked like sprinkles. EEW! I have never trusted sprinkles since.

Guess what....No red dye!

We stop at the store on the way home to get the applesauce in the little cups and some all fruit popsicles. As we go through the check out line, I look over at the child and there is the child standing leaning over with a cheek on the metal part that lies around the conveyor belt. Poor kid!

We get home, and the child disappears to the bedroom. This is a child who hates naps, but a nap must have been needed. I haven't seen the child since. The medicine has to be administered every twelve hours, so I am opting to start it before bedtime. I'm hoping it will achieve its desired results.

#4 is making dinner tonight. Baked potato bar it is. Glad to make things easier for him.

Hoping your summer's starting off a bit better than ours, but I'm grateful for the tender mercies that just keep coming our way.