Rough few weeks!

It started a few weeks ago. Both Haley and Eli were a little congested and about 3 weeks ago, I took Eli to the doctor. He had a double ear infection at that point. Then 6 days later, Haley was complaining and not feeling well and Blake was starting to get congested. So we took all three of them in (I wanted them to recheck Eli's ears because he was still congested as well). Haley had a sinus infection, Eli's ears were looking better and he just needed to finish his antibiotics and Blake just had a cold. That was on a Wednesday.

So, we go through the weekend and I notice on Sunday night (October 28Th) that Blake is sneezing a bit and coughing more that normal. This was also the day that Eli finished his antibiotics. Monday morning comes and Eli is still really congested. I call and have him seen and they said his ears looked OK. One ear was a little red still, but no infection. Tuesday and Wednesday come and Blake's cough is getting worse.

Wednesday morning, during Eli's ECI visit, I decided that I need to take Blake in. His breathing sounds bad and I can feel it in his chest now. (I mentioned this briefly on my Halloween post) We head in and he has some congestion and they start him on breathing treatments every 4 - 6 hours. I also have them peek at Eli's ears, just to be safe and again, one is red, but no infection.

Thursday and Friday come and go. They are a blur of breathing treatments and no sleep. Poor Blake is coughing like crazy. He's wheezing all the time and you can hear his chest rattling. Friday morning, my sil comes and keeps the kids and I take Blake back to the doctor. He told me he thinks he has RSV, but that he looks great. Blake is smiling and happy. His chest still sounds bad, but the doctor thinks we are through the worse.

Saturday morning comes.

4am, Blake wakes up and his coughing like crazy! I give him a breathing treatment and nurse him. Then he has a coughing fit and throws up all over the place! (Which is good because he needs to get all the mucus he's been swallowing out of him). I strip him down and get up to find him some new PJ's. When I go to pick him up, he feels really warm. I take his temp. and he's 102.7. He had not run a fever at all before now. So this concerns me because one of the things about RSV is it can turn into pneumonia. We go back to sleep and James leaves to play golf an hour or so later.

Haley comes down around 6:15 and tells me that she doesn't feel well. I feel her head and she's warm. I take her temp. and she's 101.6. I get her on the couch and watching TV and head upstairs because Eli's waking up. I get him out of his crib and kiss his head good morning. Not good, he's hot too!!! Take his temp., 102.5. Thankfully, at least at this point, Blake's temp. had gone down to 100.4.

I then start trying to call James (his phone was dead and Richard didn't have his with him. I finally managed to track him down through a friends phone! He came home right away, thankfully!). I call the doctor's office at 9 when they open and tell them that I want to bring all three kids in to be seen. They pass me around a few times, then finally one nurse asks "What's wrong with Blake?" I tell her that he ran fever at 4am and even though we were just there the day before, I want him seen again. She then asks what his temp. is right then and I tell her 100.4. Then she said that they just saw Blake the day before and that 100.4 was not a temp. to be concerned with, that they didn't need to see them. I told her that I didn't care if they wanted to see him or not. 100.4 might not be a temp. to be concerned with, but 102.7 certainly is and that I wasn't going to risk my 3 month old getting pneumonia because some nurse didn't feel like pulling a chart. And if they didn't want to schedule him into the appointment, that was fine, that I had every intention of asking the doctor to check him anyway once I was back in the room. She then transferred me to another nurse who made the appointment for all three.

James came home and we went to the doctor. By the time we got back there, Blake was a completely different child. He was screaming and obviously in a lot of pain. He tried to eat and threw up everywhere. There was nothing we could do to console him. They listened to his chest again and told me to do the treatments every 3 hours. And bring him back on Monday. They also checked his ears and he had an ear infection.

The other kids got checked out too, Haley was tested for strep, but that was negative (not surprising, she was still on antibiotics for her sinus infection). Eli's ears were checked and, yep, another ear infection!! They think the tube in his right ear may have fallen out. They won't know until the infection clears up. If so and he gets a couple more infections, we are looking at another tube going into that ear. His left tube was looking good though.

Sunday was a rough day. Everyone (James and I as well) was feeling just bad enough to make everyone else miserable! Sunday night, I give Haley her last dose of antibiotic. She goes to bed and a few minutes later, calls for her daddy. He comes down about 5 minutes later and says that she has a couple of blisters or ulcers in her mouth. My heart stops. Some of you might not know, but my best friend, Shannon's, little boy Ben was diagnosed with Stevens Johnson Syndrome in August. That's an allergic reaction to different medicines or bacteria. One of the main medications that causes the reaction is penicillin. Haley had just finished amoxicillion. The way Ben's SJS started was with blisters in his mouth. (If you have never heard of this before, please see the paragraph at the end!) I ran upstairs and looked all in her mouth. Thank GOD there was nothing else there. We continued to check her through out the night, even though we knew that with SJS, the blisters form rapidly with in the first few hours and if she was having a reaction, we would have known right away. It was one of the scariest things I've ever felt. SJS is suppose to be incredibly rare, but when Ben was in the hospital, he was the 7Th case the dermatologist had seen that MONTH! So even though my brain was telling me that she was fine and I was overreacting, my heart wouldn't stop freaking out!!! Of course, she woke up the next morning and was totally fine!

Monday, we went back to the doctor for a follow up with Blake (and yes, I did tell the doctor that Haley had a couple of ulcers and I thought she was having an SJS reaction. They do officially think I'm crazy there). He was sounding better and his ear was looking better. He still has congestion in his chest, so we are still doing breathing treatments and trying to get that junk out of there. We go back on Thursday for a recheck. Eli's last dose of antibiotics is a week from today. Hopefully this will knock out the infection and that tube is still in place.

Sorry this has been so long. It's been a crazy few weeks here. Here's a couple of pictures though!

Here's Eli leaving for school this morning. It's been our first real cold day!



and here's Haley this morning. She was in a cranky mood and her shoes are on the wrong feet!



My sweet, sick boy!!! He's still a cutie!



Daddy and Blake out for a walk!



Here's my precious boy getting a breathing treatment. He tolerates it for the most part!




Concerning SJS:

First, Ben is totally fine now!!!! His case was mild in comparison, although he was in the hospital for 11 days! He has healed 100%!! SJS is something that every parent and person should know about. Another medicine that has a high risk is ibuprofen. This is a reaction that can happen any time. You could have given your child or taken Motrin yourself 100 times and on that 101 time, they could react with SJS. As I said earlier, it is "rare" but I think it's more prevalent than what the manufactures of these medications would have you believe. And also, if you choose to google it, do yourself a favor and don't look at the images. SJS attacks the mucus membranes and then spreads to the skin. The skin blisters and then sloths off. This did not happen to Ben. He only got a few blisters on his body and eyes. They were mostly in his mouth and throat. But they did sloth off once the healing process began. Like I said, he's wonderful now, but his experience has served as an eye opener for all of us who know him and his family. We have made it our mission to let as many people as possible know about this.