Random Things

Yesterday was a rough one for Katie...she had been having a fever for a few days so I took her into the doctor to get her checked out. The doc didn't really see any other symptoms, but wanted to get a throat swab done. That was a chore. The poor nurse...it took us like 20 minutes to do the simple swab. We asked her if we could do it, told her it would tickle, bribed her with stickers and balloons. Nothing. So, we had to hold her down...I tickled her and we tried to get her to open her mouth. Another 10 minutes and finally got the swab. Naturally, she gagged. That was lovely. Then she started crying....poor little thing.

I was able to get Katie back to day care in time for lunch and then Kasey and I headed home for lunch ourselves. We were back home for just over an hour and had to pick up Katie to take her to the appointment at the allergy clinic.

OK...I don't know about you, but I find that being in a small room with 2 young children who have not had a nap all day is difficult enough in itself. Add in a doctor to the mix and I was about to rip my hair out.

Anyway...

The doc told us that basically the creams we have been using our basically worthless after 2 weeks. Katie has been using them for 3 months. Yep, 3 months. He also said that Zyrtec is not doing all we need it to do. So he put her back on Elidel cream for the eczema patches and the Minerin cream for all over and also prescribed some Atarax. She has to take 2 tsps 4 times a day of the Atarax. That's a lot of medicine! He also prescribed Nasonex (that's a lot of fun to squirt up Katie's nose...) and an antibiotic. The antibiotic was prescribed to make sure her skin is rid of any Staph that might be present.

The doc also said that her case of eczema is quite severe. Not the worst he has seen, but pretty severe. For once, I am thankful that we do not live close to family because this would be hard for them to see. Her entire body is covered. It's really sad. Her eyelids and under her eyes are getting very dry and it's hard to put lotion or cream there because she wipes it off immediately. She also has dandruff from the dry skin on her scalp. Thank goodness she has blonde hair :)

The doc told us that I needed to keep Katie's nails shorter. SHORTER?!?! Are you kidding? If they get any shorter, they will bleed! AND...he said we should be keeping cotton gloves on her and socks every night at bedtime. Umm...ok. Good one! I remember how she used to get those mittens off as a baby. I don't think she will keep them on. Then he says we should TAPE them on her. I don't think so. I will keep an eye on the nails, sure. But tape cotton gloves and socks on her at night? I don't think so. If she takes them off, she takes them off.

The next step was to decide which sort of allergy test to give her - patch test on her skin or blood test. The doc said her body was too covered in rashes to do the patch test so she had to have the blood test. Well, at that point in the day I knew that Brian was off work so I had him come pick up Kasey so that I would only need to wait at the lab with Katie and not have to worry about entertaining Kasey as well.

Katie hasn't had her blood drawn since she was itty bitty so I didn't know how it would go. She was with us a few weeks ago when Kasey had his blood drawn so she knew that she needed to stick out her arm and that she would get a sticker and a lollipop when she was done. Here comes the needle....SCREAMING! FLAILING! KICKING! SCREAMING! BITING!

They had to get 3 vials.

And here I have to hold her down and can't really comfort her. The poor thing started drooling on me. She was a trooper and they decided that she could have chocolate since she was so brave. Chocolate...we love chocolate. They knew how to speak her language.

It was about 3:30 now and we still had to wait at the pharmacy for her meds.

Katie has been up since 6:30...she didn't sleep well the night before due to severe itching. She has endured an emotional throat swab and 3 vials of blood drawn. She is crabby and itchy and tired and waiting at the pharmacy did NOT sound good at all. The average wait time is 45 minutes. I usually come back and pick it up later, but Katie needed to start the meds immediately. So, we got our #, gave them my ID and got signed in. Then we wait. Katie ended up falling asleep on me which actually was probably the best thing that could have happened. I don't mind the drool spots :)

It ended up being such a long day for Katie...but she made it through and the Atarax has already made an improvement!! WOOOOO!

The clinic called back today and she doesn't have strep. Phew!

So, we go back to the allergy clinic in about 3 weeks to see if the blood tests turned up any positive matches for allergies. I am hoping that cat and dog dander do not turn up positive...BUT I am really looking forward to finding out what she is allergic to!