Sick Children

What a crazy 2 1/2 weeks! Both Taryne and Hayden had an ear infection and pneumonia over a 2+ week time period and Taryne also had a UTI. BLAH!!!

It all seemed to happen so fast. No one has really had much allergy issues since we have been here (yay!!) but all of a sudden everyone was sniffling. Then I get the call from daycare that Hayden is having trouble breathing and they think I need to immediately take him to the hospital. Well, I pick him up and he is okay, but I have scheduled a doctor's appointment for him later that day. About an hour after I pick him up, I get a call that Taryne is coughing uncontrollably and needs to see the doctor too.

So, we get to the doctor (and this is a Wednesday, so I am missing my afternoon class, but Kyle meets me at the doctor so I can attend a mandatory meeting at 5) and Hayden has an ear infection and they want to try a breathing treatment for him since he is coughing so much. They finally check out Taryne and thinks she is wheezing a little too. By this time, I have to leave and Kyle stays with them both. They both come home with antibiotics, breathing treatments and steroids. Yuck!

The next week, we have a follow up appointment and both kids are doing great except that Taryne has a 102 fever at the doctor's office. What?? Really?!? So since she has been on antibiotics, they rule out strep throat (even though she has "throats") and determine it to possibly be a UTI. Great...

We get the results of the UTI test on a Sunday afternoon and guess what, she has a UTI. So another round of antibiotics for Taryne. During this time, Hayden starts having diarrhea and we think he has picked up a stomach bug from school. Joy, because I start throwing up on Sunday. Two sick kids and a sick mommy, no fun! And I was praying Kyle didn't get it.

The next Tuesday, Hayden was sent home for his diarrhea and we kept him home the next day hoping it would clear up soon. We were also getting concerned about dehydration since this has been going on for several days. But he was drinking his bottles perfectly fine, so I knew he wasn't dehydrated.

On Wednesday, I stayed home in the morning and Kyle came home for the afternoon since I could not miss my stats class again. When I came home, Hayden looked awful and had started coughing and had a fever. Well, I missed the doctor's office "open" hours by about 5 minutes and we had to take Hayden to Children's Hospital to be seen. When we got there, the dehydration (our big concern earlier) was not even a concern for them, it was his coughing/breathing. After some x-rays and seeing the doctor, they determined he had pneumonia. Yay...so another round of antibiotics.

We are home with him on Thursday and Friday. On Friday, we had scheduled a 3 year well child visit for Taryne (months ago) and we brought Hayden back in (needed a check up in 48 hrs from hospital visit) for a check up. During our appointment, our doctor asked if we had any concerns about Taryne and we mentioned that her ear was hurting her and that she still had her cough. The doctor informed us that when someone has pneumonia, the cough often lasts for several weeks. Kyle and I exchanged confused looks. And we asked when Taryne had pneumonia. Apparently that is what she had with her FIRST round of antibiotics. How did we not realize/know this?? Well, she had an ear infection. Her first EVER ear infection and guess what, another round of antibiotics because the one that she was currently on for the UTI did NOT treat ear infections. Oh and our doctor did not think Hayden had pneumonia, maybe bronchiolitis, but not pneumonia. They also took another urine sample from Taryne and the UTI was still there. Great.

We had to take Hayden back in the next morning for a follow up and he was better and I am happy to report that he is back to normal and healthy now.

Last week we got a call from the doctor's office that the bacteria in Taryne's UTI was a "tricky to treat" bacteria and they wanted to do further tests. So, I had to take the poor girl to Children's Hospital and have a catheter put in to take a "clean" sample. My. Poor. Little. Girl. How do you explain to a 3 year old what this involves? I did the best I could and she seemed super brave up until the moment they asked me to remove her clothes from the waist down. Then it started. The panic and crying. Luckily these ladies were super fast and it was over before we realized it. We talked about it afterward and that seemed to help. We got ice cream and brownies at Chick-Fil-A on the way home.

This week I got a call that there is no more bacteria and all is good.

Today, the day before Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful that both of my kids (and both of us) are healthy.

I hope we have used up our "sick quota" for the next year.