Medical trio
Gleek had a nasty case of croup last night. There is nothing more terrifying that watching your child struggle to breathe; unless you’ve seen it a dozen times before and you own a home nebulizer for administering albuterol, then it is only alarming. We had about 30 minutes where we were actively treating her and entertaining the idea of a trip to the emergency room. Then the crisis was over. It is nice to not panic when faced with croup, but it isn’t so nice to realize that I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve dealt with it. Since croup usually strikes between midnight and 3 AM, we didn’t get much sleep. Even once the emergency was over and Gleek was back asleep, I still woke up every time she coughed or even breathed funny. Part of that could have been because she was in bed with me and was coughing/breathing right next to my ear, but mostly it was the mommy radar on high-alert status. Sometimes croup goes for several rounds in one night, fortunately not last night. Unfortunately further rounds with croup are highly likely in the next couple of nights. We’ll be taking preventative measures, but nighttime mommy radar will be in alert status for several days, so my sleep is likely to be interrupted.
Ear infections are the other ailment that I’m far too familiar with. 3 out of my 4 kids have a genetic suceptability to them. (Inheirited from me.) If you read literature on childhood health care, you’ll know that ear infections are considered a common childhood ailment because most kids will have one before age 4. That’s common? What about one a month all winter long until you put tubes in? Supposedly kids outgrow ear infections by age 3. Tell that to 7 year old Link who is currently suffering from his third infection this winter. My treatment of ear infections would proably be made much much simpler if I had a good otoscope for peeking in thier ears. Then I could be peeking in ears regularly and giving preventative decongestants when I detect fluid. Unfortunately good otoscopes run over $150. There are some discounted ones available on ebay or other internet stores, but I’m reluctant to plunk down money without being able to test whether the device is worth the money spent. The most frustrating thing about ear infections is that the standard treatment for them is antibiotics. Unfortunately doctors are no longer supposed to prescribe antibiotics sight unseen. So even though I KNOW the child has an ear infection and I KNOW they’ll be prescribing antibiotics, I still have to drag multiple children to the doctors office for an hour of “No don’t touch that!” and I get to pay a $20 co-pay for the priveledge of doing it. Then I get to drag them all to the pharmacy where I pay full price for an antibiotic for which generic is unavailable. At least now all my kids are old enough to tell me that their ears hurt. Babies just cry while their mommies have to guess why.
Since three is an aesthetically correct number (3 fates, 3 wishes, 3 act plays) it seems appropriate that I finally got my thyroid test done this week. My levels came back mid-to-low normal. This means that I can’t blame my lethargy and weight gain on my disfunctional thyroid gland. Instead I’ll have to blame it on not exercising and eating too much. It was so much nicer to think it wasn’t my own fault. On the other hand it is good to know that my thyroid condition hasn’t worsened. Now I just need to make exercise happen every day so that I have the energy to do all the other things in my life that I’ve been too tired to do. Speaking of which, I need to do something other than sit at the computer now.