Sicky Missy

The above pic is kinda blurry, but I LOVE the outfit, so just look at that part. :-)

See that sweet little face up there. It's up to no good. No good at all.
See, Lila Jane looks all innocent, but really... she knows things. Things she shouldn't know.
Of course, she always knows when she has a hairbow in, and immediately retrieves it as a chew toy. But I'm talking about that sixth sense. For example, she knows when her 9 month well-check is coming up.
And she knows that three days before that well check is a FINE time to start showing symptoms of an ear infection. She was doing the ear-pulling, the shoulder shrugging, and the low-grade temp that are all associated with an ear infection. So...three days before our scheduled appointment, we made an early visit to the pediatrician. Guess what....no ear infection. I love making those $20 copay "donations" to the doctor's office.

So that was on a Friday. The following Monday, we went in for the scheduled well-check. All was well, except... Lila had a handful of spots on her torso. Dr. Livera said he thought it was probably just heat rash, and so I didn't think a lot of it. But...I thought at the time that it didn't really look that much like heat rash she's had before.
By Tuesday, she was infested. Throughout the day, it got worse and worse. I called the doctor, and in we went AGAIN. Yes, third time in 5 days. Dr. Livera took one peek at her polka-dotted hands and feet, and declared it a classic case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. I've probably seen hundreds of cases of HFM in my daycare career, but I don't believe I ever recall seeing a kid SOOOOO covered in that rash! Poor kid had it everywhere! I tried to get a couple pics, but they really don't do it justice. She was VERY lucky that even with such a bad case, she didn't seem to have any inside her mouth or throat, so she was still able to eat and drink ok. She was pretty uncomfortable, but hung in there pretty well.
So after the spots started clearing up, Lila was left with some allergy stuff she'd been struggling with. Just one week later, yesterday (Monday), Lila really started struggling to breathe at school. Her chest was retracting, and she was starting to wheeze a bit. Yes, we went back to the pediatrician...again. Dr. Livera had to laugh when he saw us coming this time. He decided she just has something viral, and did a breathing treatment in the office. It helped quite a bit, so we got to go home with our very own nebulizer, and a stack of prescriptions. We got one for the albuterol (breathing treatments), one for a steroid, and one for drops for her poor goopy eyes.

I called Clay, and he said he could come pick Lila up at school as soon as he got off work, so I packed her up and sent him on his way with Lila and her prescriptions to drop off at the pharmacy around 5:30. But things never go as planned on Mondays... Due to a vehicular SNAFU, Clay came right back in to the daycare. He called for help, and we waited there in my office. And waited....and waited....... We went on and let Lila eat dinner at 6 with the other kids at the dacyare, then we waited some more while a VERY sickly Lila slept on my shoulder. At 7, the daycare closed, and we were still waiting. Clay called two other companies to come help, and they were also all backed up. So at 8pm, Lila was finally awake, and in a very rapidly deteriorating condition. She was burning up, so I went on and dosed her with some Tylenol (I keep a whole pharmacy in my desk drawer.), and we threw in the towel and headed home in Clay's car, leaving my car behind. Oh, and have I mentioned that I was sick, too, with about a 100.0 temp? Super. Fun. Times.

We still had to drop off the prescriptions, get them filled, and find dinner along the way. I figured since Lila had the Tylenol and it was so close to her bedtime, Lila would probably sleep until we got that all taken care of and got her home. No such luck. We dropped of the scripts, went through the McDrive-thru, and then Lila lost her marbles. And she deserved to. It was late, and she was miserable. So we tossed our burgers back, and made a hasty retreat to the house. Clay helped us in, and I started getting Lila ready for bed while he went back for the medicine. I got her all sponge bathed and in her jammies, took her temp (102.8!!!!!), and snugged her in for her bedtime bottle. The rational part of me did give pause about giving milk to a kid with a fever, but I figured a few ounces wouldn't be a problem, especially since it had been an hour since she'd had Tylenol. Wow....what a rookie mistake. Within moments of sucking down the bottle, she puked the entire contents of her gut ALL OVER ME....down my shirt, filling my bra, covering her fresh jammies, and saturating our burp cloth. Classic mothering moment. I knew Clay was within a few blocks away, so I tried to remain calm, and I sat and waited. I managed to get her onesie off, and we just sat and watched out the door. Clay arrived within just a couple minutes of the deluge. As he walked in the door with our grocery bag full of meds, I just barked out, "STOP. Drop everything, and take the kid." One glance in our direction, and he stepped in like a rock star. He scooped her up, and only hesitated for a moment before whisking her away to the bathtub so that I could deal with my own clothes. I have to mention, this was the first time Clay had actually bathed Lila in the bathtub. He typically just does sponge baths on his nights, so it was quite the experience for both of them. By the time we cleaned everyone up, administered a breathing treatment and a pile of meds, we were ALL SO READY for bed. Lila had a bit of a rough night, but we made it ok.

I think my Facebook post pretty much summed it up for the evening:

Bad news: her temp is 102.8
Good news: mine's only 100.0
Bad news: she puked her whole bottle
Good news: I caught almost all of it...in my bra

This morning, Pop and Mim came and saved the day for us. I was off work this morning anyway, due to a low census, so Mim and I had planned to do some shopping. Plans change, though, and instead Mim babysat while Pop and I went back and took care of my car. Lila slept through the entire ordeal, so poor Mim was left with the WORST babysitting job ever. She never even got to see Lila!! I am SOOO very thankful that they were here to help us out, though. We were really in a pickle!!

I know that was a really long saga, but these are the things I'm going to (hopefully) look back on in 10 years and get a really big laugh. We have been SO fortunate with Lila that she's been so healthy, so this week has really thrown us for a loop.

Lila and I both seem to be on the mend a bit today, so we're hoping for a good day at school tomorrow, and the RAPID arrival of a long weekend will be welcome!