About 6 weeks ago Eliza caught a cold which sounds like no big deal but for some reason she seems to have a really tough time getting over sicknesses sometimes. It started with a runny nose and goopy eyes (I don't know how else to describe it.) She had some eye drainage before when she was really little and it cleared up on it's own so I figured the same thing would happen again. After about a week and a half she seemed to be improving but then caught another, even worse, cold. This time she was much sicker. Her nose was really, really, stuffy and runny and her eyes were really bad again. The poor thing could hardly breathe through her nose which made sucking on a binky pretty tricky. From what I've read, colds can last up to a couple of weeks so I thought we just needed to hang in there and it would go away on it's own. Since there are no decongestants for children anymore, all we could do was run a humidifier in her room and try to suction out her nose (which, by the way, is close to impossible.) Days went by and she would be okay one day and then bad the next. I finally took her to the doctor last week. We actually don't like our doctor and have been meaning to switch but haven't gotten around to it. I wish we had. After examining her, the doctor determined that her eyes and all her congestion was due to a sinus infection. That's what he told us last time and it did not go well. (See our post from Feb. 6) But this time I thought that she might really have a sinus infection because it seemed to make sense with all her other symptoms. He also said she had a some fluid behind her ear drum but it wasn't infected. I reminded the doctor of the bad allergic reaction Eliza had last time to Cephalexin and he prescribed Amoxicillin. After one dose, Eliza threw up and started getting a rash on the back of her neck. (Again, see our post from Feb. 6) Well, I was not going down that road again so I immediately stopped giving it to her. She threw up again during the night but after that it was pretty much out of her system and the rash went away. The doctor was already gone for the day when I tried to call back and he actually called in sick the next two days. So in the meantime I spoke with different nurses who all said the same thing, that as long as she wasn't too miserable just wait and call back on Monday. Anyone who is around Eliza much knows what a happy, content little girl she is and by Friday afternoon she was absolutely miserable. She was crying and I could just tell how sick she felt. Saturday morning I couldn't stand seeing her so miserable anymore and we called the office to see if there was a doctor there that could see her. I took her in and a different doctor examined her and said that both her ears were infected as well as her eyes. I felt horrible! It's so easy to feel inadequate as a mom and finding out that she was that sick and had been for probably a while didn't help me feel any better. This doctor told us that it was unlikely to have a sinus infection in a child that young and he disagreed with our doctor's diagnosis. Yeah, we're definitely changing pediatricians. I explained to this doctor about her bad reaction to Cephalexin as well as Amoxicillin so he prescribed Azithromycin. He said he doubted that she had a true allergy to both of those antibiotcs but it seemed like she was definitely sensitive to them. We kept up with the medicine and Tylenol to help with the pain in her ears and that seemed to do the trick. Her eyes looked better the very next day and her congestion is almost all the way gone. She is so much happier and just looks better. Man, after all that I doubt I will be sending her to nursery when she turns 18 months old next month. Talk about a germ factory! I'm so paranoid about her being exposed to any sickness now. So if anyone is still reading this novel, I'm happy to say that our sweet Eliza is all better and will hopefully not have to go through that ever again!
She has a hard time leaving her barrettes in her hair. She loves to wear them but can't keep her hands off of them.
