Porcelain Party

The week of Christmas started out quite unlike any other. On Sunday Aaron started with a mild fever. I did not think much of it, just though he was most likely cutting more teeth. The mild fever continued and Tim and I decided Wednesday we better take him to the doctor. I called and scheduled an appointment for Thursday and thus the fun began.

Wednesday night Ian would not go to sleep. He was lying in bed but continued to remind us that he did not feel like going to sleep. Then at 10:30 pm he hollered to inform us that he threw up. Ever since I was pregnant with Aaron, Ian tends to think that if you spit a little you are throwing up. So when he informed me he had thrown up I really did not think much of it. I went into his room to check anyway. I was greeted with puke all over the sheets, pillows, blankets, quilt, bed, floor, and himself. I am not sure how so much came out of a boy so small. He spent the rest of night puking and wanted to sleep in the bathroom. So we made a little soft bed for him on our bathroom floor. By about 4 am the puking stopped and everyone got a little sleep.

The next afternoon I took Aaron into the doctor's office. I was guessing he must have an ear infection since the fever had stuck around for longer than usual. He never did pull on his ears or act like they were bothering him. Although the number of tantrums he was having were through the roof and he was not sleeping well. At the office the Doctor informed me that Aaron had ruptured his eardrum. I am sure the look of surprise on my face was noticeable because the doctor reassured me it was a small hole and should heal, but I would need to come back for a follow up. They gave us a script for a strong Amoxicillin called cefdinir, and sent us on our way.

Thursday night I started puking. By some miracle both kids happened to sleep through the whole night (since Aaron has not been sleeping well with his infection). I messaged Tim at work to inform him of the wonderful news which he responded that he was not feeling well either. So from 10:30 to 4 am I enjoyed sleeping/dying on the bathroom floor.

Friday I called all of our family that was coming to our house for Christmas to inform them what was going on. Even though we were all feeling much better on I still wanted to be sure that we were all over it. The doctor had informed me that once you have finished puking the "stomach flu" is no longer contagious (don't believe that). Needless to say I took all the precautions and made sure to sanitize everything and anything that could be sanitized before company came. By Saturday we all felt a 110% and were excited to see everyone....and enjoy Christmas (I'll post about Christmas later)!

The day after Christmas Hunter came home from a sleepover at our cousins house because he did not feel well. A couple hours later my mom did not feel well. The stomach bug somehow managed to hit them too. That same morning my grandparents had all started their journey home. My family was stuck at our house hovering over the porcelain whether they liked it or not. With my mom and Hunter downstairs; my dad and brother barricaded themselves upstairs in hopes that they would not be a part of the porcelain party. We did all enjoy watching Top Gear. That same day we got a call from my grandpa Diamond that grandma was not feeling well either. Later on my grandpa Foster called to see how everyone was and informed us they had both been puking all night as well. And yes after my family arrived home on Tuesday Andrew woke up puking too! Somehow Aaron, my Dad, and grandpa Diamond managed to not join our party.

Which brings me back to our family. After my family headed back to Logan I decided I better take Aaron back to the doctors for a check up because he did not seem to be doing any better. They were able to fit me in that evening. So we all headed to the doctors office where we learned that while the hole seems to have healed he still had an infection but this time in both ears. The doctor went to write a script for some ear drops and another one for a stronger amoxicillin called omnicef. We sat waiting for the prescription from the doctor for about 5 minutes. The nurse noticed us looking a little irritated at the wait and asked us if she could help us with anything. We informed her we were waiting for Aaron's prescription. She looked a little surprised as the doctor had already gone in to see another patient without writing Aaron's prescription. She said she would have the script faxed over. I informed her I was heading straight to the Macy's to pick up the new prescription and wanted to be sure it would be ready in time. I usually have my prescriptions filled there. She said she would send it right over so it would be ready.

We got to Macy and I went to pick up the prescription. They informed me that no prescription had been called in. The annoyance on my face must have showed. It was not implied at the pharmacy but at the doctors office I had previous come from. Let's just say I am not a fan of this doctor's office. The pharmacist looked it up saw that they had called it into Walgreens. Without much thought I responded in annoyance, "I don't even know where that is!?! How do they mistake Macy's for Walgreens?" The poor pharmacy technician informed me it would not be a problem she could have the order filled there in about 5 minutes. I apologized for my annoyance with the doctor's office and decided to grab a few groceries for dinner while we were there (aka frozen pizza and garlic bread). While waiting to pay for our "groceries" Ian was watching the checker from his grocery cart car scan all the items of the lady in front of us. Just then the door on the car gave away and Ian slipped and bit his lip with a nice loud bang. Nothing major but it was quite the bleeder. I had a tissue but needed another so I asked the checker if she by chance had a tissue. The bleeding started to slow down and the checker informed me that her manager was on her way and that I needed to fill out an incident report about what had just happened.

Again, my look must have been worth a thousand words, because without saying a word for a few moments the checker started apologizing. 3 year old is still crying, baby with double infection is still fussing, and they would like me to sit there and fill out a incident report over a small minuscule cut on Ian's lip. You have got to be kidding! The manager arrived and I informed her that I would not be filling out an incident report because there was nothing to report on, I would not be suing the store because there was no reason to sue. It was a small accident and a little cut on his lip that had already stopped bleeding. She understood and asked if there was anything else she could do. I said we were just fine and thanked her for her concern. At that same moment Ian informed her that he needed ice. Thanks Ian :) So off she went to meet the three year old request. At least the ice kept him well entertained while I went to pick up the prescription.

I walked back over the the pharmacy. The technician went to hand the medicine to me and read the name -cefdinir. I wasn't positive but I was sure that was not what the doctor had told me that was the old prescription. I called Tim (who was having a peaceful drive in the car to work) to confirm with him what the doctor had said. He told me omnicef. Did you know omnicef and cefdinir are the exact same thing! The doctor did increase the dose by a 1/4 of a teaspoon but still. All of this headache at the store to pick up the same prescription that I already have sitting on the counter at home, which did not do anything in the first place?!?!? Annoying? I think so! I took it anyway because it was after 6 pm and I wasn't sure how much I had left at home. I could call the doctor in the morning.

I called the doctor this morning at 9:00 am and after talking with four nurses and telling them all the same story they finally said they would talk with the doctor and call me back. At 1:00 pm I called the doctor's office because they had not returned my call. Can I just say that our doctor in Logan would personally call us (yes the actual doctor) to see how things were going and if we had any concerns or questions. Doctors down here don't seem to care about customer satisfaction because there are so many dang people down here. So, I then told the same story again to three different people and they questioned if I had indeed called and if so what time. Finally they put someone with some competence (not much) on the phone that remembered I had called. She informed me that she had talked with the doctor and the doctor would like to leave the decision up to me. Too bad they could not see my face through the phone then maybe I would have got some answers. I tried to politely say that I would like to know if the doctor is aware they put him on the same medication? Would he be better switching to a different type of amoxicillin? Her response, "It is really up to you, if he is not better in a couple days please feel free to come back in and they can write you a different prescription." She did not even fully answer my question. Plus in three days our insurance changes over to the high deductible plan (long story short we rarely go to the doctor besides check-ups and we are always trying to burn through our flex money at the end of the year because we never end up using it -too bad we already burnt through it last week).

After being completely fed up with the office and not wanting a repeat of the grocery store incident. I finally agreed and went about my day. On Friday we are heading to Logan for the holiday, if Aaron is still not doing well I can take him to our pediatrician there! Hopefully he will be better soon but he has been on the "new" medication for 36 hours and there is no change thus far. I guess we'll see.