Get it together, UTC

You know what is frustrating? When you take your child to the Urgent Treatment Center because you think they have Strep Throat and you don't want to wait until the next day to start antibiotics because Strep is miserable. Turns out the child does have strep, so THANK GOODNESS You came on in, right?  But unfortunately, the UTC forgets to call in any medication before closing for the night.

They just, forgot...

Yep. That sure is annoying. Especially when you have a sick child on your hands who has a fever and a cough and can't speak because his throat hurts but you made him go to the UTC when he just wanted to sleep because WE NEED TO ADDRESS THIS NOW!  Even more annoying is that the UTC had an actual human answer the phone after hours, but that human had no contact information for anyone with the actual UTC who could help by calling in the prescription.  WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?

Anyway, Henry is sick, but getting better now that he finally has meds.  His Nana came in from Florida last night so lucky us, we have a built in baby sitter since he is out of school for a second day (DELAYED MEDICATION... I BLAME YOU, UTC!).  Still, I am fairly sure Henry and his Nana are happy to have the extra time together.

In other (happier) news, I got the new Harry Potter book in the mail yesterday which is for me Henry for Christmas.  Guys, this thing is so amazing! I was hoping the color pictures would be nice, but I had NO IDEA.  It is beautiful, and absolutely the perfect version of the book for a kid Henry's age.  I cannot wait to start reading it with him!

Sick Child of Mine

So yesterday was Career Day at Henry's school.  They were all supposed to dress up like the job they want when they grow up and parents were going to come in and talk to them about the different jobs they have.  Henry was going to dress exactly like his Papa (khaki's and a polo) because he wants to work at UK in Engineering...not just be an engineer, but work at UK with students in his Papa's lab and do research EXACTLY what Nick does.  Alas, Nick had to teach class during career day so I had signed up to talk about my job, which Henry thought was pretty awesome. They wanted some people representing the STEM professions and I was actually sorta excited to tell them about the different jobs I have had over the years. I made a power point presentation and everything... it was all going to be great!

Then...

Thursday in the middle of the night I heard Henry sorta cough and choke and I was like "What was that??"  And then I realized he threw up. And I was literally like WHAT. THE. HELL?!  He was perfectly normal when we went to bed!  PERFECTLY NORMAL.

Now is a good time to remind you that Henry has been really sick twice this year prior to this event.  Once on the day of the Halloween Party, for which I was also supposed to volunteer, and once during the Valentines Day party.  SERIOUSLY?!  Like, they don't have THAT many cool days at school, and he is missing ALL of them!  And not that it is at all about me, but I keep signing up to help, and then backing out.  The school is going to ban me!

But I look at him after "the event" and he seems fine.  He says he feels fine and goes right back to sleep.  No more issues.  So I start to think what all parents think in moments like this... "Maybe he just got choked and threw up.  I mean.. that has NEVER happened before, but there is a first time, right?  Or maybe it was drainage.  YES!  DRAINAGE!  And now he is fine.  Just a random fluke.  This is nothing.  NOTHING!"

(We as parents do this because the alternate thought it too awful.  That this is just the beginning.  That this is going to be SO BAD.)

My first thought, the blissful denial one, was actually supported on Friday morning as Henry woke up and said he felt fine.  PERFECT!  He ate dry cereal and played video games. I even felt a little bad for letting him stay home with me for the hour before the start of Career Day.  Clearly this kid should be in school. 

"See!  He is totally fine!"  Nick and I said to each other.   DRAINAGE! These things DO happen!

And then, he was not fine.  Not fine AT ALL.  We will skip the details as nobody cares, but about fifteen minutes before we were about to walk out the door he declared himself EXTREMELY NOT FINE. 

Career Day was canceled, we would stay home.  Typically when he gets bugs like this they run their course quickly, but man, the bug was a beast.  Seriously, he was SO SO SICK.  Fever of 103, could not keep anything down all day, pale, weak, pitiful. It's now 24 hours later and we see a light at the end of the tunnel.  He is doing okay.  Not great, but better.  He has eaten a little and that's a start.

So we are home for the weekend.  Recovering.  Maybe I will give my Career Day power point pretension to Henry so he can at least see one presentation... or I guess we can just save it for next year.

 

Let's Try This Again...

So I managed to work all of five hours on Monday, and then took off Tuesday and Wednesday. So... maybe I wasn't quite ready to be back in the swing of things.  It's amazing how good you feel when you are doing nothing and how quickly you feel awful as soon as you try to get back into the normal routine.    But two more days seems to have done the trick (fingers crossed) and I am back to work full time as of today.  You can see by the amount of food I stuffed into my lunch bag that I believe I will be stranded here for a week...

It's supposed to zip closed.  Apparently I am worried about being hungry at work...

Tuesday night Henry was up coughing the entire night.  It. Was. Pitiful.  I was actually at the pharmacy at 3am begging for something to help my sweet boy rest.  The next morning I took him to the doctor, and as suspected he has bronchitus.

Although you would never guess it by how he acts.  When I ask how he feels he says 'Um... a little bit good'.  God bless his heart.  He slept some last night but woke up at 5am with the cough that just wont stop.  He is on strong antibiotics and a cough syrup so hopefully he will be better soon. 

I guess that's it for now... just still working to get back to normal.  Someday soon I will get back to normal posting as well... I really want to stop talking about how sick we all are....someday.

 

The Ick

Don't let this adorable face fool you...
 
This boy was S-I-C-K this weekend
 
Like the Throw Up kinda sick. Which we have been really lucky and have mostly avoided his entire 2.75 years of life (except for the Vomit-Fest that was Halloween 2010. That was EPIC)
But when Nick and I talk about the vomit of St. Patrick's Day 2012 (you gotta love hanging out with parents, right?), all we keep telling everyone is "Henry thew up... IN THE TOILET!".  You guys, it was so amazing, and sad, but yet AMAZING*. The toilet you all.  Not the couch, not the bed, not on top of Mama, IN THE TOILET. (Although Boo and Nanny were not so lucky. His first vomit of the weekend was actually on Nanny watch... and occurred in Boo's bed during nap time. Sorry Aunt Boo. Sorry Nanny.  Sorry everyone.  Vomit-Fests ... they are not enjoyable.)

BUT...IN THE TOILET AT HOME! Kisses and High Fives all around.
 
What?  you don't want to kiss him?  Why on earth not??

*The credit for the amazing first throw up in the toilet actually goes to Papa who looked at Henry after Henry made this sighing noise and basically had a feeling he was going to be sick.  Scooped him up and RAN and made it just in time.  Way to go Papa, way to go.

Sick Day

Someone is not feeling so hot...

Nothing serious.  A runny nose, fever, and a cough.  If we assume he and I have the same thing, then it's safe to say he has a pretty terrible headache as well.  We are both home, trying to take it easy today.

His requests have been pretty straight forward:

1.) He wants to wear his Zips. 
2.) He wants to stay in Mama's bed. 
3.) He wants to watch Lion King. 
4.) He wants to eat Peanut Butter on a spoon.


Done, done, done and done.

Those four things with the addition of a little Tylenol for the fever and we are doing pretty good.  Actually, as I am typing this is he sitting up in bed dancing and singing Hakuna Matata.  All in all, not too bad of a day, sick or not.

Today I have a new post up over at Bloggers for Hope about the initial feelings of finding out you have emdometriosis.  If you have a second, I would really appreciate if you would click over and read.  Thanks so much!

The Plague

The plague has settled in on the Bio Girl household.  Well...either the plague or the common cold.  But with the amount of mucus we have flying around here, I am going to stake my money on the plague.  It's been a great holiday weekend, as I am sure you can imagine.

To make matters worse, I managed to have my back pain flair up again.  I can just hear the conversations now:

Caring Stranger: "Oh, you reinjured your back?  How did you do it?  Working out? Heavy lifting?"

Me: "Well you see, I was in the middle of the MAJOR sneezing attack..."

On the more adorable side of the plague, yesterday I put Henry down for his nap and was laying on the couch (reading of course... about 600 pages into Voyager) and I had one of the many sneezing fits of the weekend.  Once it was over and I blew my nose I heard a tiny little voice yell from his room. "Bless You, Mama!"

Good lord I love this boy.  Anyway, all three of us seem to be on the mend.  I can swallow without wanting to burst into tears.  I actually slept rather well last night.  It looks like the plague might be lifting just in time to get back to our busy lives.

Elastic Girl

I had Physical Therapy today for my back, and as we were talking they asked if I had any night sweats. An odd question, but due to my lupron, which makes it hard to regulate my body temperature, I do have a tendency to sweat. (gross, I know). So, I mention to them that this isn't normally a problem, but due to some fertility medications that I am on, I am currently having issues with that. But clearly, I don't think it's tied to my back problems.

They gave each other a knowing look and say, "Oooohhhhh... you are on fertility medications? When did you start taking those?" And I was like, "Well the one that causes the temperature problems just started a week ago, but I have been on hormones for the past couple of months..." I don't think it's a big deal, but they seem excited to have solved this puzzle. The girl seemed giddy when she told me "Oh, that is where this is all coming from!"

Excuse me? So the fact that I am infertile is now ALSO the cause of this awful back pain? Yes, yes it is. Pregnancy hormones makes you all extra elasticy, which... you know, makes since. Seeing as how you do a lot of stretching out over those nine months. But when you do fertility treatments they hit your body with a ton of synthetic hormones all at once. So in one fail swoop you get all super stretchy. And that can cause your bones to just slip right our of alignment due to the more elastic cartilage holding everything together in a much more haphazard fashion (lazy worthless cartilage).

I also found out that the slipped vertebrae in my back has also had the fun effect of leading to my ribs slipping over top of each other in the front. Something about them attempting to over compensate for the back issue or what have you. So my back flipped out when the vertebrae slipped, the muscles tightened up around them as if to say "PLEASE GOD DON'T MOVE THEM AGAIN!" and the ribs were like, "Yo, We GOT THIS! We can handle ALL the moving!" And you know what? The rib's totally couldn't handle it. Not at all. So last night along with my back hurting, I had this terrible pain wrapping around my ribs. You can actually see a bulge between the two ribs where I am all swollen as my body protests it's new uber elastic status.

If someone told me I was going to become super elastic girl I would have pictured it to be way cooler. Something more along the lines of this...

Instead I just need a lot of ice. Not nearly as cool. And much more painful.

I was Jealous of Henry's Therapy, So I Went and Got My Own

So you know that back issue I mentioned the other day? No? You don't remember everything I tell you? Come on now readers. Stay with me! I have been having these back issues. I can't remember exactly when it started (the doctors just LOVE when you say this, by the way) but I distinctly remember the day we found out the FET was negative and I was attempting to do that Jillian Michael's Shred video that I felt it when I was doing sit-ups. (What? I can do a sit-up...I can do at least, like, ten of them) And I remember thinking "Oh yeah... my back is hurt". So I didn't pull it doing the sit ups, but it was there before that. That was a long rant to tell you I don't know how I did it. Moving on.

So it has been getting worse and worse over the last couple of weeks. Finally last Tuesday I broke down and went to the doctor after having a hard time rolling out of bed (turns out, you use your back muscles for all sorts of things). I saw the PA and she chatted with me, then wrote me a prescription for some steroids and some muscle relaxers. She said to call back if it wasn't better by Friday. Well... Friday came and went and it still hurt. The steroids ran out and it hurt more. By Tuesday night I got up to change the laundry and seriously could not stand all the way up. Nick was very impressed with his hump backed 31 year old wife. He informed me I would need surgery to remove my back. Glad he isn't my doctor.

Anyway I call my doctor back and they don't have me come in, they just refer my right to physical therapy. Honestly, I was a little torn on this. I was happy to not have a copay again, but felt like they might be rushing things to send me to PT. I was hurt enough for that to really be necessary?? Turns out yes, yes I was. As soon as I lay down on the table the physical Therapist could tell that two of my vertebrae right below my shoulder blades had slipped out of place. So THAT'S what was bother me. She popped them back into place, then did several exercises with me to show how to strengthen that muscle to prevent it from happening again. They want me to come back twice a week, but it is a $40 copay each time, so I opted for once a week. Still, they sent me home with exercises that will help, and I already feel a lot better. You know, now that my bones are back in alignment and no longer pinching a muscle between their little spinney parts every time I move.

I don't know why I always question myself when I am sick or hurt. I did the same thing before I was diagnosed with my Endometriosis. I questioned if I was really hurting. Or was a I really hurting ENOUGH to need to call a doctor. To go to PT. To have a laparoscopic surgery. Turns out, in both cases, I was really hurting. I don't know why I don't trust myself, but it was really nice to hear I was hurt, and there was something they could do to fix it. Thank goodness. It isn't cute to have to roll out of bed like a beached whale.

**Today is the last day to vote for us for Circle of Mom's Top 25 Most Inspiring Families! (I hear you all sigh with relief) Please take a second to click over and vote for us. We are currently holding on to 4th! It means so much to me that you have all voted and kept me in the top 5 blogs. Thank you all so so much!**

Shingles

Welp... I have shingles. Huge holiday bummer. I have actually had them once before. When I was planning my wedding my grandfather was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The stress built and one day I broke out in this odd rash. Amazingly, I recognized it fast and got on the anti-viral medication quickly and it wasn't that bad.

This time around I once again have a tad bit of stress (ahhh hahaha) between Missy's treatments, baby #2 stress, money stress, my masters class ( I got an A!), and the holidays. I got what I thought was some sort of odd bug bite or spider bite on my chest several days ago. It itched like there was no tomorrow. And it ached, oh how it ached. But... it was just a bite of some sort. A bite that hurt to touch, and yet that I scratched so much in my sleep that it would bleed (lovely, I know). Then, yesterday two more popped up right in line with it, and they had the distinct blister look to them. And then today, three more are brewing. I went to the doctor, she took one look and announced "Shingles!"

So back on anti-viral meds I go. Here's hoping I caught it early enough again to where it won't be a huge deal. My holiday break starts at 5pm today, and I wont be back at work until the first week of January. That will definitely help too.

Poor Baby

Sweet Henry is sick. We went to the doctor today and he officially has his first ear infection and first sinus infection. With a nasty cough to boot. So he is now on antibiotics for the first time in his life. Making it nineteen months before the first antibiotic required sickness is pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

After the doctor we went to Chic-fil-a for breakfast, where he ate three entire ketchup packets, using his hash brown bite as a spoon. Can I count that as a vegetable for the day?

Next we went to pick up his prescription, where he finally was willing to taste a sucker, and not act like I was coming at him with a deadly weapon. It was instant love. Getting him in the car seat without taking it out of his mouth was a challenge, but we got it done.

Henry: "I don't feel good, woman. If I want to eat ketchup packets for lunch and become irrationally attached to a sucker, that's my prerogative."

Mama: "There is a song called My Prerogative! I used to..."

Henry: "Mama, I cannot tell you how much I do not care."

Mama: " Oh, FINE. I will tell you about it when you feel better."

So THAT'S Why I Feel so Terrible...

I have bronchitis. It really explains a lot. Excuse me while I go lay down for the next ten hours.

Afrin

Have you all ever used Afrin? It is a sinus medicine that is over the counter and comes as a nasal spray. When we were at the doctor yesterday he said along with my antibiotic, I could take Sudafed, but that he really recommends Afrin...that it seems to work better and is safe for pregnancy. Now, twenty four hours later, I am seriously torn on the question of if Afrin comes from God himself, or the devil. First off, as soon as I got home I popped off the cap and gave each nostril a good squirt. One squirt. And I seriously thought my entire head might explode. I was concerned. It was...tears welling in my eyes kinda painful. I immediately flipped the bottle over to make sure I wasn't taking it wrong (seemed self explanatory to me, but still...could this PAIN be right??) and it said to squirt 2-3 times in each nostril. ARE THEY SERIOUS?? One almost killed me!

I threw the bottle across the room and yelled something along the lines of "no more devil spray for me" and then sat down to eat my (delicious) twice baked pizza (would have been better if I could taste it). Then....then an amazing thing happened. maybe ten minutes after the devil spray was in my nose, I COULD BREATH! No more running nose, no more sneezing, NO MORE DRAINAGE. I still had the nasty cough, but that was it! And so it was decided, AFRIN IS FROM GOD HIMSELF. So I carefully go and pick up the bottle and apologize to it for being so cruel and judging so quickly. I then feel the sleepiness coming on. The sleep I needed for the past two days was finally going to happen! I laid down and drifted off...only to wake up an hour later with what I will refer to as the Devil Afrin's head ache. IT. WAS. AWFUL. And it never went away. I could numb it with Tylenol (regular strength...because you know...pregnant) and that would give me three hours. Then one hour of waiting in misery for it to be time to take more Tylenol. Then back to sleep.

And so my day went. I only got out of bed for dinner, and then I had to take more devil spray. It allowed me to sleep all night except when the head ache woke me for more Tylenol. I am on the fence about this Afrin...one one side it stopped all sinus issues. One the other side, I question whether it did long term damage to my brain. I guess time will tell...

Strep!

What the hell. I have strep throat. Seriously. I have not had strep throat since I had my tonsils removed back in 2001. Now, in my own throats defence, I will mention that I have managed to sort of regrow my tonsils between now and then...but still. We are looking at seven years of no strep, and then BAM...it's back. I will admit to you, my faithful blog readers, that when my throat started to hurt, the first place my mind went was to, "Sore throat....is that a lesser know side effect of PREGNANCY???" Seriously. I've got it bad. Who thinks a terrible sore throat is proof of pregnancy. This fool, that's who.

Saturday my throat was really bothering me, but it just looked red, so I assumed it was drainage (or pregnancy) and went over to Boo and Chris's house for a game night with all of our friends. We had a ton of fun, but once I got home I told Nick and Missy no less than three times that my throat really did hurt. Finally Nick was like, "WE KNOW!!". I just didn't want them to forget....I was in pain. Sunday I woke up and took a look and saw...the classic strep blisters. I got right in the car and went to the urgent treatment center. TWO HOURS LATER I saw a doctor. Apparently the UTC is very popular on a Sunday morning. I left there, came home, and went directly to bed.

It actually worked out well (as well as being sick can work out) that it landed on the weekend, and that I caught it early. It allowed me to sleep all day yesterday and let the medicine start working, so I was able to go into work today. Since I took two vacation days last month for being sick, I am really trying to hold on to the rest. Who wants to waste precious vacation days on stupid strep throat??

**Also, when the doc looked in my throat she was all, "This is really red. I see several white blisters...you are REALLY inflamed! You have all this....TISSUE that is...so...SWOLLEN!" I was all, woe is me, until I got home and took a look. Yes, it is VERY red, and there were even more blisters, but all that "swollen tissue" is about 90% my regrown tonsils. I guess it isn't that common...**

**Also again, Missy totally made dinner last night. It was awesome. She is pretty handy to have around!**