Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Now I Believe Her



I've been a terrible blogger lately.


In my defense, I've been a little busy lately.


Megan got sick in November and hasn't gotten better since.


It started out with what I thought was a mild cold.


Runny nose, slight cough, that's it.


Except, every night she complained her throat hurt.


Only at bedtime.


Every night.


And I didn't believe her.


A kid with a sore throat doesn't chow down bagels, pizza, carrots, etc.


Right?


Then all of a sudden bedtime came and her throat hurt.


I thought it was a bedtime stall tactic.


After a couple weeks of the mild cold just not going away,


I took her to the doctor, mostly to prove her throat DIDN'T HURT


justgotobedforcryingoutloud!!!!!!


I've been a mom for five years now.


I think I've done a pretty good job so far.


I wasn't prepared for what the doctor said next -


SEVERE TONSILLITIS.


One of the worst cases he's ever seen.

(And he's been a doctor for a hundred million years. Approximately.)

What?????


I told him I just couldn't believe it because she didn't act very sick.

She never even had a fever!


We left with a prescription for antibiotics for her

and a serious case of mommy guilt for me.


Then guess what?

Instead of getting better she just got worse.

After two courses of antibiotics, she STILL had tonsillitis.


We were off to see the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist.

He scheduled the tonsillectomy for January 4.

Then, a couple days after Christmas Megan spiked a super high fever,

wouldn't eat or drink anything,

and got so lethargic I almost couldn't wake her up.

In a panic, I rushed her to the emergency room.

She ended up getting admitted to the

infectious disease unit at Nationwide Children's Hospital.


She needed an IV for severe dehydration.

They gave her morphine to control her pain.

They also gave her some steriods

to control the swelling in her tonsils.



While she was there,

everyone who came in the room had to wear a mask and gown.

Kinda scary for a little kid.

They really weren't sure why she was so sick and dehydrated.

They did all kinds of tests.

They took her for a CT scan.


They thought she might have a hidden abscess behind her tonsil.


Instead they found that she had a sinus infection, an ear infection in both ears,
AND severe tonsillitis (we already knew that.)


Then they swabbed up her nose and down her throat.


She kinda hated that.


Those tests showed she had mycoplasma pneumonia and adenovirus.


That's kinda a lot to have wrong with you at once.


The infected tonsils were essentially creating a germ factory.


Her tonsillectomy for January 4 got cancelled because they were worried she would end up on a ventilator if they operated.


Yikes!


She was sent home with a months worth of antibiotics.


One of them tasted so badly she threw up.


In my mouth. (I had it open, cheering for her.)


It got all over my face too.


First time in five years she's ever thrown up.


I now consider us even - I didn't believe her throat hurt, she threw up in my mouth.


Fair and square.


We got rescheduled for another tonsillectomy on February 8 . . . tomorrow.


She still complains of her throat hurting every day.


Only now I believe her.