Friday 26 July 2013

Vegas, Urologists and ANOTHER Round of Illness

It's been awhile.....

I'm becoming one of THOSE bloggers.

The one who always has some reason for not blogging.

Honestly, I don't know how you all do it!

How in the hell do you manage a post a day! Or even a post every other day, or a post a week??

I was doing good there for awhile, but then life just gets busy and I take FOREVER to even write a post.  Well, posts like this one are easy, but the post with a little more depth, those for me take a long time to write. I feel like I gotta get the words just right and sometimes what I'm thinking just doesn't seem to come out on paper quite right.

But I digress......

This is an update post, an easy post.

Let's start with VEGAS BABY!!

Woooo hoooo!


Our first night in Vegas!


Oh, how some days I wish I was still there.

Two week ago tomorrow (already), I met 3 of my closest girlfriends (and 2 ladies whom I had never met) in Calgary! From there we flew to Vegas and spent 4 fantastic days together! We got a little tipsy one night, we dressed up all sexy and went to a show, we went to a fantastic outlet mall and shopped all day, we rented a cabana and spent all day by the pool....the list goes on and on!

One of my BFFs


It was REALLY hard to come back to reality, let me tell you.  I shit you not, I got MORE sleep in Vegas then I get here at home.  Sure, I went to bed almost every night in Vegas at 2/3am, but then I got to sleep...UNINTERRUPTED for 6-7 hours!! Since I have gotten home, the most sleep I have gotten is....3 hours.

I blame the youngest McG.  Her sleeping can be awesome sometimes, but then she goes through weeks where she sleeps like shit. I believe she is affected by the moon's phases.  I have been keeping a sleep journal for her and it's always around a new moon that her sleep starts to go all haywire.

So, the night I got back from Vegas, Stella slept shitty, so I slept shitty.  Then a few days later Sophie decided to get a stuffy nose and guess who then got a stuffy nose?  Yup, Stella.  Stella is on a crap load of vitamins, mineral, probiotics...you name it, yet she still is managing to get sick.  I was hoping that it would just stay a stuffy nose, but nope, it's in her chest, so now she's on a nebulizer again.  I am now considering doing a complete overhaul on her diet.  So far I have cut dairy out of her diet, but I am going to start looking into removing gluten and sugar.  That being said, Stella is not the best eater, so I really don't know what I am going to feed her if I stop giving her bread, crackers, pasta.  If she'd only eat a vegetable (that isn't pureed), that would be awesome.  I know of a few parents whose children are on a sugar/dairy/gluten free diet.  I will have to get some ideas from one of them.

And poor Livi! She is fighting strep throat.  Whenever she gets sick lately, she always seems to get strep throat.  I can tell she has it just by how she is swallowing.  A few days before I left for Vegas she was complaining of a sore throat, and so I took her to a walk-in clinic (it was the weekend so I had no other choice).  The doctor there affirmed my diagnosis and prescribed the usual amoxacillin.  The next day Livi felt better and she continued taking the antibiotics as prescribed.

Well, just yesterday Livi came upstairs in the morning looking like she felt horrible and swallowing "funny".

"My throat hurts"

"What??  How is it possible that you could have strep throat again?? You literally just had strep throat!"

So off we jaunt to the clinic again, as her Ped is on vacation until August 12 (crap!).

Here is my version of the conversation with the quack.....ahem clinic doctor.

Dr.: "So what seems to be the problem?"

Me: "I think she (referring to Livi) has strep throat again.  She just finished a round of antibiotics on Saturday"

Dr.: "Strep throat is going around this year" (he says this right before looking in Livi's mouth)
Dr: (after looking in Livi's mouth) "That's not strep throat.  She has thrush."

Me: "THRUSH?? as in Thrush that babies get?"

Dr.: "Yes, it can happen after being on antibiotics as antibiotics kill both good and bad germs"

Me: "It didn't look like thrush to me? Does thrush cause her throat to hurt?"

Dr: "Yes, it can. It can be very painful"

Me: "Oh, okay. So, you are sure it's not Strep throat?"

Dr: "No, it's thrush"

Quack Doctor!

It's fricken STREP THROAT!!! That stupid antibiotic mouthwash crap has done diddly squat for my poor child.  She won't eat, can hardly talk and is in extreme pain every time she swallows!! Plus I have looked in her mouth practically every hour today and I'm sorry, but those white spots are not thrush! I know what thrush looks like, hell, Olivia, Sophie and Stella all had thrush as newborns!!

THAT'S NOT THRUSH!!!

Whew!!

Sorry, I'm a little pissed off.

Tomorrow I will be going to a different clinic and nicely requesting more antibiotics for my poor child. And this doctor better not tell me it's thrush or so help me God.....

Deep breathe.......inhale.............exhale.............ahhhhh all better.

Sophie's immune system seems to be the strongest.  That kid rarely gets sick, and when she does it's never for long.  Well, as baby and toddler, she tended to get chest infections but now that she's four, her colds never seem to bother her much.

No, her issue is her bladder.  She likes to hold her pee until she can't hold it anymore.  At the beginning of the year she got a bladder infection because of her fierce independence and unwillingness to cooperate when asked to "please for God's sake GO PEE!! I know you have to go!!!!"

This is Sophie back in March.  She had to go pee, but nooooo, she refused to go!  She insisted that she didn't have to go, and instead of going, she decided to lay down and hold her pee.  A few minutes after this picture she finally lamented and went.


After her antibiotics were done, she had an ultra sound and an x-ray of her bladder.  It was discovered that one of the valves in her bladder is not working properly and so when she pees some of the urine goes back up into her kidneys.  This is called urinary reflux.  So on Tuesday, Sophie and I made the 3 hour jaunt to Calgary to meet with the urologist at the Children's Hospital.  Sophie will have day surgery some time in the fall.  They will do what's called a "Sting Procedure".  The surgeon injects a collagen or Teflon through the tube.  It goes into the tissues below the valve.  The substance swells the tissues and sometimes tightens the valve and stops the reflux.

Then her little bladder will be good as new.

Thankfully she is much better at listening to her body and she does not lay on the floor......as often.

Update complete!

Now I must go and calm down Livi as her STREP THROAT is keeping her awake.

Quack doctor...mumble, mumble...thrush my ass....mumble, mumble....





6 comments:

  1. Both my kids have strep right now too. It sucks. And of course it would have to happen on the week that my sister and her husband are in NYC and I am also watching their 5 boys! Go figure! Hang in there, I hope it settles down for you:)

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    1. I read that on your blog!! Olivia is on the mend and it is getting better already! Sounds like you are very, very busy!

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  2. Such a chaotic time! Hope everyone is healthy again soon. Sounded like you had a great time in Vegas though!

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    1. Thanks Cindy! Olivia is doing much better now that she is on antibiotics and Vegas was awesome!! I hope to go again soon!

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  3. Oh my my! So bummed to hear about all the sick! That sounds like alot of meds and sleepless nights! I sure hope you are planning another trip to Vegas soon! Smiles

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    1. Thanks so much! Yes! I really would love to go back to Vegas.....perhaps next year. Thankfully all my girls are pretty much all better! Yay!!

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