The Good Stuff?

Yesterday, when Peeper was snotting and sneezing and can't-sleeping all over again, we scheduled an appointment with the pediatrician, to find out what was up and maybe see about switching antibiotics.

Of course, last night, she (as you saw) conked out in front of Sesame Street, and then proceeded to sleep like a pebble all night long.

(She's too little to sleep like a rock.)

She woke once and cried for me (I hadn't gone to bed yet) and maybe I woke her up enough to want to nurse for a minute a time or two, but other than that, she was o.u.t.

No snotting around, no waking unable to breathe, no nothing, just peaceful (if a bit louder than usual) snores.

I, on the other hand, had also slept til midafternoon and, thus, was up, up, up. I think I finally dozed off sometime after six - and the alarm went off at 8:30.

But, we dutifully went to the appointment, and recounted our story of woe.

For three weeks, and as recently as last night, I've been asking Peeper if anything hurt, and specifically if her ears hurt, and she's always told me no. A couple of times, she's owned up to them feeling "funny like on the airplane" (my words, not hers) but never hurting, and she's not acted like they were hurting either.

(With the possible exception of yesterday morning, but she settled down when I sucked out her nose, so I figured that was it.)

I've told her that I have medicine that will help her ears if they hurt, so if they do, please tell me, so I can help. Nope, don't hurt a bit, Mama, it's all good.

So, this morning, the doctor looks at her and asks, "Does anything hurt you, honey?" and damn if she doesn't point at her right ear.

Doc takes a peek inside and declares it infected.

WTF, kid?

I told the pediatrician all about how I'd told the Doc in a Box that Peeper and I can't take penicillin, but we've both had good results from Omnicef - her for an ear infection, me for a couple of different sinus infections - but he said that he doesn't like prescribing it, because it has "some weird side effects" (which obviously haven't affected us) and "this is stronger anyway" and gave me and Shrike Keflex and Peeper (I think) Cipro.

She didn't really say anything one way or another to that, but I could tell she didn't buy his "side effects" thing, as she was typing in her computer and magically sending the prescription for Omnicef directly to the pharmacy.

(Man, I love dealing with the various bits and pieces of one big medical system.)

We thanked her, and went right over to pick it up. (Only slightly less convenient now that the pediatrician's office has moved out of the building where the pharmacy is, because they'd outgrown their old suite. The nice place is pretty sweet itself, though.)

Of course, I was very "I told you so!" about the Omnicef, and then got jealous that I wanted some, too, so as soon as we got home, I called the grown-up doctor's office to see about maybe getting in tomorrow. I figured I'd have to call back first thing in the morning, for one of their "you're sick enough to be willing to wake up early and call the doctor" appointments, but as it turns out, they said, "Can you come right over?"

So, back I went, to the building right next door to Peeper's doctor, where the whole scene was pretty much repeated, except my ears are no longer infected, but still very congested, and she agreed that my sinuses are probably infected, and she ordered me some grown-up Omnicef of my own through the magic box.

It was about time for Shrike to leave for work by then, so I came home and Peeper and I ran back over to the pharmacy later to pick it up, "Why yes, here we are again!"

At least I was able to report that Peeper had liked the flavor of her medicine (default strawberry) so much that she'd asked for more!

As opposed to the bubble gum other stuff, which she didn't not like at all.

Much to her credit, though - and much to my surprise - she never fought me about taking it, just said "I don' like it" and "I don' want it" very matter-of-factly  (and kind of sadly) each time I gave it to her.

I was very, very proud of her for taking it anyway, especially since I was administering it in two separate squirts, so she had to open up for more right after tasting it.

I tried to give her as many choices in the matter (other than whether or not to take it) as possible, which I thin khelped.

I was usually taking either my antibiotics or a giant Mucinex horse pill at the same time, and she was usually also taking Tylenol, so she got to choose if she would go first or Mama (she always picked Mama) and when it was the horse pills, I showed them to her, and then made a big deal out of "Okay, here goes Mama's giant pill! Whew! I got it!" and then I'd give her the option of taking her Tylenol first or her Pink Medicine, and she always went for the Tylenol, then pink medicine, then some water (oddly enough, never goody) to wash it down.

I also gave her the option of one big (4 ml) squirt or two 2 ml squirts, and she went with the two.

I think, if it were me, I'd have done one big squirt first, and then washed it out with the (evidently) yummy Tylenol, but to each her own.

For the Omnicef, it's a 6 ml dose (but only once a day - woo hoo!), so I explained that she could have three squirts the same size as she'd been getting, or two bigger squirts (hello, commutative property of multiplication!) and she opted for the three little ones.

Then asked for more.

So, although the pediatrician says that she suspects the illness is viral (but for ears they give antibiotics - especially with us flying in less than a week) and although I strongly suspect that too, I'm really hoping that it will turn out that we just needed to find the right antibiotics to magically fix us.

I'm also really hoping that if we go into this trip while already taking antibiotics, it will be enough to protect us from the airplane cooties and we can actually stay healthy for a while, rather than having to do this all over again ten days from now.

Now, we just have to get Shrike in to see her doc for some Omnicef, and maybe we can get on with our lives.