Sick ward

We've had illnesses this week, and boy has it been fun! Meggie Meg spiked a fever Saturday afternoon. We'd had a nice day, a birthday party (Meg's first as a guest!) and then went with some neighbors to see George Mason women's volleyball play William and Mary. Not my normal outing, but they invited us and it was fun and different. Meg was lethargic and warm, but I somehow had my eyes on the game and totally ignored all the warning signs. Serves me right because she threw up all over the car and on me as soon as we got home. Poor chicken.

She slept well that night and was perky and a bit warm the next day. I deduced a sore throat as she wasn't eating or drinking much. Then she had a hideous night where she was up every 45 minutes practically whether she was in our bed, hers or what. I thought it must have been strep, instead it was the virus hand, foot and mouth. It basically put a bunch of mouth sores over her tongue and back of her throat. She was one pissed off and tired kid all Monday who also refused to take a nap. Mommy was also quite exhausted. Monday night, I drugged her up with Motrin and antihistamine, took and Ambien and went to bed.

Naturally, she slept fine, but Andy came to our bed twice. The second time we noticed he was warm. Then in the morning he started screaming, "Why is there no air conditioning in my room!" Turns out the kid was burning up with 102 fever, but no symptoms. Miss Ayesha watched him for a bit and Bjorn stayed home with him the rest of yesterday. This morning he woke up saying his mouth and ear hurt. I schlepped back to the doctor today.

Fortunately no strep, HFM (not to be confused with High School Musical, HSM) or an ear infection, but Dr. Murphy looked in his right ear and pulled out a hunk of ear wax the size of my pinky fingernail. He thought that the sinus pressure of a cold and slight sore throat put pressure on the wax that was making his ear hurt. He was in a better mood the rest of the day with a low fever.

I took the opportunity to ask about the H1N1. I'm fascinated because all the health agencies are saying it's safe, but all the doctors I talk to at work and personally are not recommending it for themselves or their patients. Dr. Murphy said in the late 1970s when he was in medical school, they had a vaccine that wasn't tested enough that sent lots of people to the hospital with Guillane-Barre. I asked about the mercury, which is what I'm hearing is a problem from other mommies, but he said that's not it. He's totally advocating the seasonal flu and with folks (fingers crossed!) on the mend, we'll get that this weekend.

H1N1

Turns out lots of us are unsure about the H1N1 vaccine as evidenced by this article in the Post today. The article, sadly, doesn't address any of the facts vs. myths in the whole thing, it just addresses that a lot of us are uneasy. It did bring up an interesting point that just as many parents are freaking out that their kids aren't going to get is as are freaking out that it's a bad idea for their kids to get it.

Ah, parenting. No shortage of neuroses here.

To vaccinate or not? A swine flu love story

There is a ton of talk about the swine flu, excuse me, H1N1 flu these days and whether or not there are vaccines, if they will be available in time, who is at highest risk and if you can ever get one. I must say, something about it just isn't sitting right with me and I'm glad to read I'm not the only one. Believe me, I hate my kids getting sick probably more than the next guy, especially since fall is the busy season for me at work. But something about this new vaccine, how fast it's been prepared, how there's higher than normal levels of mercury in them (the same mercury some folks say can cause autism).

I want to protect them. Most likely both are getting the regular flu shot and I'm scheduled to get mine this Friday. However, the new one? I'm not so sure. I haven't talked to the pediatrician about it yet, but they are usually fairly conservative. Thoughts?

Well check

I took Meg for her one year check up today. She was deemed perfect and growing perfectly, just what every mother wants to hear. Here are the stats:

Weight: 24 pounds, 12 ounces (95th percentile)
Height: 30 1/2 inches (75-90th percentile)

I guess at this age they don't measure head size any longer. With her height and size, I have a theory that Andy will end up being about 5' 10" and she will be right behind him at 5'9". I'll certainly take it.

She got one shot, the first of the chickenpox series. While we had to wait 15 minutes for it, I was holding her while she tried to go upside down and didn't even notice the stick. Fortunately, Nurse Sylvia does a nice job.

I also got a list of her ear infections and treatments to give to the ENT on Monday. It's a new doctor as the one that did Andy's has somewhat mysteriously retired from practice. (The story from a friend was he'd been forced out, the story from my pediatrician through the NICU nurses whose kids she sees is that he'd developed an eye condition and was stepping back. I agree though that a surgeon with an eye condition probably shouldn't be trying to put little pin sized tubes into kids' ears.)

Meg does have a little bit of a cold and fingers crossed it doesn't turn into another ear infection. Good thing she'll get her ears looked at Monday, just in case.

In other news, I resubscribed to NetFlix. Bjorn has been dying to watch the Dark Knight since before it came out and I have wanted to watch John Adams. Jubilee!

Four year check up

Andy had his four year check up on Friday. What was notable was that at four, he moves up to the "preliminary room" for his check-ups where he was given a vision test, a depth perception test, a red/green color blind test and a hearing test. His vision wasn't perfect. Apparently kids this age don't normally see 20/20 anyway, but he had trouble with some of the pictures on the exam. Dr. Staats thought that could just be to not understanding the test, which happens all the time, but that I should keep an eye out to see if I see him squinting in the future and that we'll look at it again at his next check up. He also didn't do so great on high pitched sounds on his left ear. That is the ear where he had an ear infection just last week so that is likely the culprit. She also reported that his tube has fallen out of that ear and is just sitting in the ear canal. If it doesn't fall out between now and the visit to the ENT in a few weeks, she thinks they will reach in to scoop it out.

I didn't get the piece of paper with all the measurements like in other visits, but I can report that he was 39 1/2 inches tall (not quite 40, which would make him happy since he's four and naturally, his height should match). He also weighed in at 35 pounds. I know, 35 pounds. I was looking back at my posts around his first year and he weight 24 pounds at a year. It's hard to believe he's only gained 10 pounds in three years.

They also drew blood from his finger to check for cholesterol, which he doesn't have. He also peed in a cup and they checked for diabetes, which he also doesn't have. He also was a good sport and got the chicken pox booster vaccine. It's not required at age four, but it will be required for kindergarten and apparently at age five, there are three other boosters so it just made sense to knock one of those out now. The whole appointment took about 1 1/2 hours, and we were being seen for that whole time.

In other news, I got out to see some friends this weekend. Friday night the C-spot girls got together and during the day I got to see Armando. I even left him at the Kings Park West library checking out porn on public computers while I took Andy to his appointment. I even managed to get in a beginning yoga class with Lizzie G on Sunday. It was good. I think I could get into that.