So, I decided that I PROBABLY should fill y'all in on everything going on in my crazy life. I mean, that is why my blog is called Birdcage Media. My pocket book is heaving, my throat is crying, and I am so ready for a pause button.
Last week, all of my kids ended up with mild colds. I say mild, but they had a pretty good cough that was associated with them. The colds were gone by Thursday, but their coughs are still lingering. We took Turtle to her well child check and she has been given her vaccinations and we are calling a specialist to figure out this constipation issue we have been battling for two years. It's a little crazy and we feel like we have exhausted all natural and medical routes without using the specialist.
Before her appointment, we had the older two go to their dental exam. Found out that Peanut has not done as much damage as originally thought by sucking her thumb. She will need spacers and an appliance that will prevent her from putting her thumb in her mouth. UNFORTUNATELY, she is starting to act as if that means she can try to suck her thumb until we give her the appliance. *sigh* Bullfrog will also need some spacers, but not for another year. He has been cursed with his father's small mouth.
We had a great family party on Saturday with all healthy family members. Then BOOM, out of the blue, I get a sore throat Sunday night and sometime overnight it becomes so bad I really can't eat. I wrote it off as tonsillitis because I had that before. I get a nice fever with it that lasts for about a day, sore throat (still can swallow and is calmed with some Ricola or Halls), and a mild ear ache. I thought nothing else of it except that I started to notice by Wednesday that I really wasn't able to drink or eat ... ANYTHING. Y'all, I was downing MAYBE 7oz of water a day ... that is a far cry from the 64-80oz that I normally consume. It was starting to wear on me. Tuesday we took Peanut into the Dr because her throat was so bad she could hardly swallow. She was diagnosed with strep. Whomp whomp whomp. Guess what ... SHE'S allergic to penicillin. Her ONE medication cost us $40.
Wednesday, we decided to have me go in and get checked. Figured I would have to go to KU anyway since Monkey had her hearing test that day (she had failed her tests at Headstart). Well, they were booked so I ended up going to a Minute Clinic. Checked in at 10am, there was a 60-minute wait. 2 1/2 hours and $30 later, test was negative. I didn't feel good about the test at all. For me, if I don't gag, the test hasn't been administered correctly. *laugh* Either way, we rushed over to Monkey's test. She passed on the right ear for high tones but failed on the low tones. She failed completely for the left ear. We have a followup in 6 weeks and if she fails again, we will be talking tubes.
I noticed by Thursday evening my fever was starting to really take hold and I upped my Ibuprofen intake from 200mg every 6 hours to 400mg. That helped mildly. Still was not able to consume more than a cup of applesauce or one small cookie for the entire day. However, Bullfrog has his well child appointment scheduled and has a foot that's been bothering him since horsing around at church a few weeks ago. We ended up getting x-rays. It has been discovered there is no break, but it could be sprained. It's not swollen so he's just supposed to monitor it. Still ... there's another medical bill.
Friday night came and I noticed that my fever had gone up despite my fever reducer. I emailed my husband and we came to the mutual decision that the ER would be visited. We checked into Providence at 10:30pm with our oldest staying up to make sure nothing happened. We really thought I was going to have a swab done, get some meds, and go home. pffffft. That is SO not what happened. I ended up with 2 nurses bouncing back and forth working on me at Providence. Everyone was so nice. The doctor walked in, looked in my mouth, and went "ooof ...." That is NEVER EVER a good sound. Then the words abscess, CT, drain, and transfer were all mentioned. They gave me an IV and put a steroid in it, followed with morphine. I started feeling pretty good about then. CT Scan was my first ever and that verified the abscess ... just the location of the abscess was not quite clear to the untrained eye. Unfortunately, ENT DR was at The University of KS hospital ... not Providence. We gave hubby's dad a call and got some reinforcements sent over to our house to allow Peanut some sleep. By 1:30am, hubby and I were on our way over to KU. We finally got seen around 3am. The ENT determined that the abscess is actually IN my tonsil, not outside of it. What that meant was I had a choice. I could either let them stick the big long needle down my throat to drain the abscess or I could let antibiotics have a chance on it. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE needles? Yeah, I went the second route. They gave me another dose of morphine and some scripts for some heavy antibiotics. Hubby and I were finally sent home around 4:40am. Yup .. 6 hours and 2 hospitals later. I don't even want to think about that bill. THANKFULLY I have been able to eat EVERY meal today AND I have consumed close to 70oz of water. My throat is still sore, but not nearly as bad. My meds also were less than HALF the price of Peanut's and I had TWO scripts to fill! TOGETHER they were less than half the cost. That girl and her body's allergy to Penicillin.
So, taking note ... we still have to get Turtle into the Pediatric GI at Children's Mercy and Peanut needs $300 worth of mouth work done. Monkey is still due for another hearing test, and hopefully the fluid will dissipate on it's own, but family history suggests against it. But ... in 9 days we have been at KU MedWest 4 times, Minute Clinic once, Dentist twice and 2 ERs. I am still being closely monitored, as the ER ENT would prefer to see my throat again tonight. However, since I'm able to consume food and liquids, we are waiting until Monday to do a follow-up if necessary.
I now have so much to squeeze in so I apologize for the overflow of sponsored posts that will be coming in over the next few days. I just have been so overwhelmed, tired, and overall feeling of yucky that I have not been on my computer. Thank you for the prayers, outreach of support, and questions of concerns I have gotten via Facebook, Email, and Twitter. I greatly appreciate the love! Y'all are the best.
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