it was a beautiful almost spring-like weekend, but unfortunately we didn't get to enjoy very much of it. instead our weekend consisted of fevers, sickness, doctor's appointments, and lots of R&R.
wash. rinse. repeat.
poor libbi has had a rough time lately. she's going on almost day 10 of fevers and sickness.
of course, it all started after she finished a week off school for winter break. isn't that the way it always happens?
she started feeling sick early friday morning two weeks ago and the fever came shortly after. she had spent the night at my mom's house the night before, so it was pure torture to admit she didn't feel well on friday. she was burning up with fever but remained adamant that she "felt fiiiiiine!!!" needless to say, i picked her up and took her straight to the doctor despite her protests. libbi is my child who has serious anxiety about sickness - whether it's hers or someone else's - and she does not like to talk about it in any form or fashion. she could be burning up with fever, puking buckets, and sick as a dog - yet she'd still insist she felt fine. it makes it difficult to gauge her level sickness sometimes since she won't ever admit to any ache or pain. but it also makes for a very easy patient once she is diagnosed. she doesn't whine or complain. she doesn't even want to snuggle or be babied. she just wants to be left alone. give her a pillow & blanket (although she does NOT need them because she does NOT need to rest!) a tv or an iPad and she's set. she'll lie in bed until she feels better and then decides to rejoin the family. and God forbid you ask her how she's feeling...never mind that you're just concerned for her well-being, you might as well have directly insulted her. no matter what - do.not.ask.about.her.health.
(although if you're her mother you just ignore all of the above and continue to check on her, fret over her, and offer her everything under the sun. much to her chagrin.) ;-)
anyway, after a negative strep test and negative flu test, she was diagnosed that friday with the ever popular "virus" and told to rest up, take some tylenol, and stay hydrated. easy, right?
well, come monday - she was still running fever. no other symptoms really but a nagging cough. i called the doctor and they assured me it was just a nasty virus and had to run it's course. but if she was still running fever on friday to bring her back in. we thought we'd turned a corner when her fever broke early tuesday morning. she was fever free all day tuesday and just seemed to be tired. she still had a cough but nothing really worrisome. since she'd been fever free for 24 hours, she went back to school on wednesday. she told me that morning that she "didn't feel like herself" but i just chalked it up to being anxious about returning to school after an extended break. i assured her if she felt bad i'd come pick her up, she'd be fine, etc. etc. i emailed her teacher and gave her a heads up and then we were off.
about 2:15 that afternoon i received an email from her teacher stating that libbi had a great day, was her usual self, was talking, playing, etc. and i breathed a sigh of relief.
we were sitting in carpool line no less than 20 minutes later and i get a phone call from the school. the nurse informs me libbi had thrown up and was waiting in the office. small silver lining - i got to bypass the dreaded carpool line....
of course the first thing she says to me is "i TOLD you i wasn't feeling like myself!" #momoftheyear
thankfully, we determined that it was an isolated incident caused by her getting overheated and coughing too much. thank you, Lord! but the fever remained so she stayed home again on thursday.
friday morning she was still puny and running fever so i took her back to the pediatrician again. turns out the virus she started out with the previous week had settled in her lungs and she now had pneumonia. poor thing! i was so glad i had decided to take her back in! they prescribed an antibiotic and we came home to do more resting, hydrating, and medicine taking. i was sure she'd wake up feeling at least a little more like herself on saturday morning....
and i was wrong. saturday morning she woke up covered in hives and itching like crazy. i called the pediatrician and they advised me to bring her in asap. (small side note: if you think your child is having a non-life threatening allergic reaction, take pictures! often times the rash/redness/etc can fade by the time you have it seen about and it's always helpful to have photos to show the doctor).
we made another trip to the doctor where it was confirmed she was having an allergic reaction to the medication. we knew she was already allergic to penicillin and amoxicillin, and now with this new family of antibiotics added to her allergy list, she wasn't really left with many choices. bless her heart, she ended up with something so nasty - but they said at this point, they couldn't really take "taste" into consideration since her options were so limited.
she's been on the new medication for a little over two days now and is FINALLY starting to show some improvements. i think there's a chance she may even be back at school tomorrow. #praisehands
you might remember last year's horrible attendance record starting from the third day of school, but this year was so much better! she'd had perfect attendance up until this point. libbi doesn't get sick often, thank goodness, but when she does - she goes all out. i'm praying that the worst is behind her because i know she's ready to feel "like herself" again. :)
and we're all ready for her to feel like libbi, too.
