Not The Best Start to the New Year

So far, 2014 hasn't been kind to us.  Not only has the weather completely sucked and we've been blasted with super cold temperatures (although I'm grateful that our temps haven't been as low as some of my friends scattered across the country, it's still pretty darn frigid here!), but we've been in a battle against some respiratory crud.  John actually had a nasty cold before Christmas, but it took until New Year's Eve for Judith to break out with symptoms.

By New Year's day, I knew it was time to act, because the faucet from her nose went from clear to green.  Gross for most people, but since I'm so used to dealing with mucus at this point, it didn't phase me other than being a signal to take action.  I got a sick appointment at the pediatrician on Thursday since Dr. G. wanted me to take her in for a listen to make sure her lungs were still clear, and luckily they were.  She has a cough and sinus infection, which she so graciously shared with me.

Of course this means we've entered into yet another epic battle of wills with liquid medicine.  Dr. G. has Judith on a higher dose of bactrim right now, which would make for some interesting pill splitting if we were able to do the pills.  I think it's going to come down to that, though, because once again we've tried everything we can possibly think of to get the meds into Judith, and she just.won't.take.them.

It's frustrating, to say the least.  This piled on top of the eating issues feels like one pot hole after another.  She's eating even less now that she's sick, and I'm concerned that she'll lose any gains she's made over the past few months.  The dietician is aware of our problems, and I had another good conversation with her the other day.  We decided that we're going to try to get Judith enrolled in feeding therapy, and will try an appetite stimulator to see if that makes a difference.  We're starting to max out on options, and John and I are getting increasingly frustrated while feeling defeated.  I'm sure we're going to have a long discussion about all of this at Judith's next clinic appointment later in the month, and I'm hoping that we can think of a couple other options in addition to the ones we're looking at that will help Judith eat more so she can have better weight gains.

We Have An Appointment

I feel relief that we have an appointment set up for Judith's abdominal ultrasound and her reculture.  I'm hoping that we'll be able to get some answers about what's going on with her liver (if anything), and can work to try to get rid of the MRSA infection in her lungs.

2013

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.

Pumpkin Patch 2012 and a Culture Update

We've been pretty busy the last few days!  Saturday we took a trip to the pumpkin patch.  My MIL and niece came for a visit, and went with us.  Judith did have a good time, but she seriously protested the hayride.  She was melting down waiting in line, and was still having a fit when we got on the cart.  John ended up taking her off the ride and took her to play in the kid's area.  My niece and I continued on the ride and had a good time!

Judith really enjoyed herself sensory area!  They had feed corn in troughs and old tractor tires, and the kids could dig and play with it.  They also had some hay bales with little slides.  She got to see some chickens and goats (she kept saying "doggie" for the black and white goats), and picked out a small pumpkin.

I do have pictures from Saturday, but I'm waiting to post them tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.  So if you're curious, you'll have to come back later!


We did get the culture results back for Judith's abscess.  Go figure she cultured positive for MRSA.  The spot is getting better, and hasn't drained for a few days.  However, we had to switch antibiotics, and getting her to take the bactrum has been a massive battle.  All of my regular tricks that we use to get the drugs into her have failed miserably.  I've tried masking the meds in pediasure, pudding, water - just about everything I could think of.  No matter what we do, she can taste the meds and promptly spits them out.  Giving it to her straight results in lots of puking and gagging, so that was quickly ruled out as an option.  We have 4 days/8 doses to go, and I have a feeling it's going to be a long 4 days.

Abscess... Again

Judith developed another abscess, this time on her thigh.  I noticed that a little bump was starting a while ago, but didn't really do anything.  Much like the last one, it looked like a little pimple, and I thought that maybe the diaper ruffles were rubbing her skin and irritating it.  Then, over the weekend, it started getting worse, until it looked really ugly on Tuesday.  I called the pedi, and got an appointment for her.  My mom came along to help - I knew after the last abscess, I would definitely need help to hold Judith steady so the pedi could examine the spot and see if it would drain.  Luckily we got it to drain and were able to get a culture.  I'm still waiting to hear the results.  It could be staph, it could be strep, or it could be MRSA.  I hope it's just staph or strep.  If it's MRSA, the pedi said she'll have to put Judith on bactrum, and I'm leery about doing that since it's one of her go-to antibiotics for respiratory infections.  I want to ward off the possibility of resistance as long as possible, and her pedi agrees.

The amount of pus that drained out of this thing is disgusting.  Considering the size of the actual abscess under the skin, it's not surprising that so much pus was involved, but it still managed to catch me off guard.  I hate, hate, hate having to drain it.  I hate that it's so painful for Judith, and I hate hearing her scream in pain.  I also hate seeing all of the foul colored infection-laden pus pouring out of the abscess.  I normally have a relatively strong stomach for these things, but this was making me gag.

Judith does seem to be doing better each day, though.  Yesterday was a bit rough: she had a slight fever the night before, and yesterday didn't want to put a lot of pressure on her leg.  She was walking funny, partially from the pain and partially from the big band aids I was using to create a barrier for the diaper. Today she seemed to be back to her normal self, save for the crying whenever the spot was accidentally bumped.  She has 4 doses of antibiotics in her system, and it looks like it might be helping.

We're stumped by this.  Both John & I want to know how she's getting these infections.  Hopefully we'll have some answers tomorrow.