What better way to start the new year than an impending throat culture? Sarcasm aside, I know that we're going to be taking Judith in for her reculture sometime very soon. I called our nurse coordinator today to get a better handle on what's going on with the liver function tests, to see when we need to do the culture, and what we should do about the antibiotics. We still don't know a lot, but I feel better after this phone call than I did a couple weeks ago when we got her lab results back.
Judith's pulmonologist has a packed schedule, but they're going to try to squeeze her in. I said that we were having a hell of a time trying to get the bactrum into her (so far she's probably taken a few full doses, but most of it is spit out, much to my chagrin), and that we've exhausted practically every technique we could think of: trying to mask it in pediasure/other beverages, masking in various types of food, pinching her nose, wrapping her in a towel to help hold her arms down (also serves as a great medicine catcher) - you name it, we've tried it. Each time she's prescribed bactrum it gets progressively worse. Whether it's the artificial grape flavor, the actual medicine (which smells like crap, so I can only imagine how it tastes), or a combination of the 2 remains to be determined, but at this point it doesn't make much of a difference because she flat out refuses to swallow it. I'm sure Judith's not the first toddler to completely battle a medication, and I do think we've been relatively lucky with her compliance with meds and treatments, so I guess a battle with some things is inevitable. Anyway, Dr. G. said that he would prefer to see her and listen to her lungs when we do the reculture to check things out. I know this is going to make it trickier to schedule, since a reculture would be a quick nurse visit, but they'll work it out and will call us with a time.
One of the bigger reliefs for me is they want to do the liver ultrasound at the same time. They know that we took Judith to the urgent care facility because she was looking jaundiced, and even though we said she doesn't look nearly as bad as she did a few Saturdays ago, they would rather do it now instead of waiting, just in case. So instead of waiting a few months for her next regular visit to get some answers, we'll hopefully be able to get a better idea of what her body's doing in a few weeks.
Thinking of you all <3
ReplyDeleteRe: medicine my little brother had to take leukemia meds every day and he got it in a couple spoonfuls of ice cream. His twin and I were raging jealous, of course, but it was disgusting. My dad eventually put some on our tongues to shut us up. Is that something you can try with her?
Thanks, hon! <3
ReplyDeleteWe've tried all of that, unfortunately. :( She smells the meds in whatever we're giving her and won't let it near her mouth.