October 2008 Archives

Myra was up extremely early this morning.  She was very talkative like she had gotten a good nights sleep.  While she's rambling on and on about who knows what (unlike her, I was tired), she mentions that she was up at "1 AM".  I finally decided to give my brain a rest (it was difficult keeping up with her) telling her that it's time to get ready for school.  She gets dressed, eats breakfast, brushes her hair and gathers her folders.  At 7:30, Anna arrives with Andrew.  That's when the water works start.

"Mommy, I want to stay home with you today."  She hadn't complained about anything up until this point.  She still wasn't really complaining.  I asked her if there was anything hurting and she shook her head no.  I told her to try to go to school; that she's just tired and maybe seeing her friends will help her to wake up.  "Okay, I'll try."  She left with Anna for school and I left with the babies and Noah for a fun filled trip to the Development Center ready to explain the rash on Little Man's body.

10am finally rolls around.  It's nap time for the babies and break time for "Auntie".  This was to be my first day back to normal.  The key word here is "was".  10:15 the phone rings.  It's the nurse from Myra's school telling me that Myra is in her office with a slight fever and complaining of an ear ache.  She said that she had looked in Myra's ear and compared to her left, her right ear is "pretty red".  Back to the doctor's office we went. 

Sure enough, Myra has an ear infection.  She received the usual prescription (something I know she won't react to) and we were sent on our way.  I put her to bed early tonight in hopes that she'll be up to going to school tomorrow. 

(While at the doctor's office, the receptionists decided to have a little fun.  "Maybe we should just set you up with a cot in the back room" ... "You just can't get enough of our beautiful smiling faces can you?" ... "Was Baby Girl feeling neglected?" ... And my favorite "Look Girls!  It's PAYDAY!")

(Warning:  The following is a long post to cover the longer week we've had visiting doctors.)

Saturday, October 4th, Noah is playing in the front yard while Josh and I cook dinner.  I keep the windows open when the kids are out by themselves so I can easily check on them.  I hear a blood curdling scream (I've been hearing a lot of those lately) and run outside thinking the worst.  I found Noah by the front door just screaming.  He won't talk to me he just screams.  So I'm yelling at him "Where does it hurt? ... What happened?"  I look down and there they are ... ANTS!

By this time the neighbor's are over wondering what's going on.  Josh and I are frantically dusting ants off Noah asking each other "Do you see anymore?"  Noah's still screaming.  We get the little man clear and take him inside to ice him down.  Little blisters all over his right ankle with a little swelling.  That's nothing out of the ordinary. 

Fast forward to Tuesday.  Noah wakes with blisters the size of dimes on his ankle and his leg all the way up to his knee is swollen and purplish red.  We decide to skip school and head to the doctor's office.  We get to the doctor where a culture is taken (she said it didn't look infected but she wanted to be sure) and an antibiotic is prescribed (just in case there is infection).  The swelling looked much better Wednesday but we still keep him home because he's still swollen enough that we can't get shoes on him.  Thursday, it's back to the doctor.

Noah woke up Thursday with one HUGE blister.  It was about the size of a ping pong ball and it looked like it was about to explode but it just wouldn't.  By the time we get to the office, it's finally popped but it looks disgusting.  Noah had to see a different doctor because his regular is out that day.  This second doctor takes one look at it and says "I know exactly what that is and I bet the test results will verify."  He looks at Noah's chart and realizes there's no test results. 

The doctor leaves the room to call the lab.  He didn't want to prescribe medicine without them.  He comes back into the room and says "Let me explain how insurance and labs work ..."  Basically, they had to send the culture to the lab my insurance would pay for.  That particular lab hadn't plated the culture until that morning (remember the culture was taken Tuesday and this was Thursday).  We wouldn't have any idea if bacteria was present for at least 24 hours.  The doctor decides to place Noah on the antibiotic anyway ... for Bulbous Impetigo ... to be taken with the antibiotic he was given Tuesday.

Fast forward again.  Monday, we were able to send Noah back to school.  We made sure to wrap his blister good hoping that his bandage wouldn't need to be changed.  Josh happened to have meetings all day upstairs from Noah's class so that helped put my mind at ease ... I little bit.  We still didn't know what exactly was going on but he was improving and that's all that mattered.

Yesterday.  Noah wakes with a rash all up and down the right side of his face.  Of course, we have to keep him home again from school until we find out if it's contagious or not.  By the time we get to the doctor's office (he got to see his regular doctor this time) he's covered in little red spots.    Turns out he's allergic to the second antibiotic which he had been on for five days by this point.  She said the reason we didn't see the reaction sooner is because the first antibiotic was counteracting it.  (For the record, Noah is "allergic to sulfa drugs including Bactrim.")

Noah's back at school today ... rash and all.  I'm hoping he's having a good day.  I'm hoping the kids are nice to him.  They all got this look of horror when seeing his face and you know how little kids can be.  I left some Hydrocortisone with the nurse telling her, Noah's teachers and the day care coordinator to call me if need be.  So here I am, praying that the phone doesn't ring.  We're so ready to get off this crazy ride.

Not my title but the title ... name of the Saginaw, TX newspaper.  Saginaw finally decided a couple months ago that they would do their own local newspaper.  I usually just do a quick glance but this week, something caught my eye.

"Chisholm Ridge Announces A and A/B Honor Roll"

We had received Myra's report card last Friday and were happy to see that she is keeping up her STRAIGHT A streak.  Because of this, I just knew her name had to be there among the others.  I looked and looked and looked but I didn't see it.  Why is she not here?  She made straight 'A's.  She should be on here.  Am I missing something?  After looking for about five minutes, I realized I was looking in the first grade section.  (I haven't quite gotten use to having a second grader.)  I finally found the right place ... Second Grade 'A' Honor Roll.

If you've been reading this for a while, you might remember this post from 2005.  The US Navy's Blue Angels were in town (at the Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base) and put on a show that was absolutely spectacular from our own back yard.  Today, we went to Myra's soccer game up near Alliance Field and guess who showed up?  The USAF Thunderbirds happened to be putting on show pretty much right over our heads.  It was kind of hard to concentrate on the game--for the parents AND the players.  Luckily, they were done in the 1st quarter and the Pirates went on to win again!  There's another pic of the planes over on Flickr.