White Flag

Can you see me? I am waving the white flag! I surrender! I just cant believe the amount of sickness we have been dealing with lately and it has totally taken it's toll. We got Hannah to the Pediatrician Monday and when he checked her throat he said it looked as though it was Strep so he did the test and we went home to wait on the results. They were NEGATIVE! Which lead me to believe that she ended up with the Mystery Virus that Layla had.. except she just had it with even higher temperatures. We rested Monday and by Tuesday she was feeling a world better. She was actually bored and asking to go back to school. She was also fever free on Tuesday so I was grateful that she seemed to have gotten over the virus so much quicker than Layla did. Tuesday night however, she had a very restless night's sleep. She was crying and whimpering and waking often. I attributed it to nightmares and just kept settling her down. I got up early Wednesday morning and jumped in the shower. All of a sudden Han came running in the bathroom crying that her ear hurt. I felt her head and her fever was back. What was going on here????? I gave her some Motrin for the pain and we headed to work early since I knew I would be back at the Pediatrician's with her.

I was able to catch up on some of my work before heading to her appointment. When the doctor came in he looked at us like, "Weren't you just here?" Yes doc we were.. now check her ear. He did and much to his surprise it was quite infected. He even said, "What a difference a day makes." So I left there feeling like okay this stinks but get some antibiotic into her and we will be good as gold and back to our routine by tomorrow. Not so much! By the time I got Hannah to the car she had started to whimper saying her ear really hurt. I must back up for a minute and give a brief history. Hannah has probably had at least 40 ear infections in her almost 6 years of life. She has had tubes in twice. 99.9% of the time Hannah has NEVER complained about any pain associated with the ear infection and there have even been times where I have taken her to "Well Visits" and the doctor has said, "Um, both her ears are completely infected." I had no idea! The only way I can ever tell anything is wrong with her is that her eyes will get sunken in a bit and she will become increasingly fresh in her temperament. She just doesn't feel the pain associated with ear infections and I always thought it was because of all the trauma she went through as an infant that she had a high tolerance for pain.... especially in that area. So back to the present situation and now she is really getting uncomfortable. We still had to pick up her prescriptions, head back to the office to grab our stuff and head home. I figured once we got the Motrin and antibiotic into her, she would be okay. I headed home to give her the Motrin first to relieve some of the pain she was feeling. Then to CVS where of course the prescription was not ready. At this point Hannah is now screaming in pain and crying hysterically in the back seat. It was HORRIBLE! I had never seen her like this and I really started to get nervous. I kept trying to calm her but nothing was working. I couldn't understand why the Motrin hadn't taken affect yet. I drove to the office and then back to CVS. Our errands took us a little over an hour and the whole time she was screaming and crying and then apologizing because she felt bad but she was in so much pain. She broke my heart into a million pieces and I began to cry with her.

I got her home and on the couch where she fell asleep for about 10 minutes before she woke up screaming again. I called the doctor and explained that something was very wrong. By the time they had called me back 5 minutes later, Hannah had a temperature of 105. I gave her a dose of Tylenol and got her to the tub to try and cool her off but she was just too uncomfortable so back on the couch she went. I sat there trying to console her and sponge her down. All the while I was completely FREAKED OUT! Again.. me and temps above 104 don't do so well. Plus.. the way this temp came on and the pain she was in.. I had no idea what was going on. Was something going on internally??? I had one foot out the door and was ready to get her to Hasbro, I was just trying to find someone to watch Layla for me. I ended up getting in touch with my Dad and he came right over. He was a Godsend in calming me down but he too, had never seen her like this and it was so bothersome and heartbreaking. I spoke to the doctor a few more times and Billy ended up picking up some numbing drops for her on his way home from work. This was at about 3:30. They didn't help. She had now been screaming from 11:00am til 4:00pm. At 4:10 she finally fell asleep and this was when I noticed that drainage was coming out of her ear.. tons of it. I mean TONS. I called the doctor back and low and behold, the poor kid ruptured her ear drum. Thankfully, once it ruptures, the pain is relieved and it was. Hannah was able to sleep for a good two hours. All the while her ear draining like crazy. I actually took pictures because I couldn't believe the amount that was coming out of her ear! We then picked up a topical antibiotic to help with the perforation.

When she woke up she was so much better and I was SOOOO relieved! I hugged her a million times! I was so happy that I didn't have to watch her suffer any more! She decided to eat a little and unfortunately that didn't go so well and she got sick. I think because of all the meds in her on an empty belly and thankfully it only happened once. We are the worst parents when it comes to puke and it took us forever to try and get it cleaned up. I was worse than Billy and what a show watching us trying to clean it. Hannah just sat there with this blank stare on her face.. LOL I got her to the tub and managed to get her cleaned up and the rest of the night went a lot smoother. I have to admit however, I was totally wiped out emotionally and physically.

She had a good night's sleep and tons more drainage came out of her ear. I cant imagine how long this had been brewing for and it obviously must have been in the middle ear where the doctor wouldn't have been able to see it. She says it still hurts, but nothing like yesterday so I am keeping her on the Motrin and Tylenol. My poor Hannah. I pray that she never has to endure that again because it was absolutely heartbreaking to watch. We have a follow-up with the ENT in June, so hopefully then we can ask some questions and get some answers on how we could possibly prevent this from happening again. I will mention.. and I have said this a million times in this blog, this is the ear that has the hemangioma wrapped around the ear tube. I cant help but wonder if this could be a contributing factor in all of this.

So here I sit praying that now these sicknesses can be over. I just want my girls healthy. I want to know that they are okay. There is no other desire greater than this for me. Fingers crossed that this will be the last of the episodes for a long time to come!

Now, when is this baby coming out?????????? LOLOL