Bronchiosaurus

*I started writing this at 2pm but the power went out for over an hour due to the storm so I'm continuing it now at 6pm

**Apparently at 6pm I forgot I had a sick child to tend to so I will be finishing this post now, at 8:30

Bug's cough is so bad today that I decided to call the Pediatrician's Office to see if I could give her some sort of OTC decongestant (based on a suggestion by a friend). Answer was no but after describing her condition they told me I need to bring her back in. If she has an ear infection I worry for them because I'm sure they'll have a nasty visit from that same friend (whose picture I'm never allowed to post online).

Anyway, I told the nurse which doctors I was OK with and, more importantly, which doctors I did not want seeing my child. I also told her I wanted a time that would allow us to be in and out quicker without all the wait (also suggested by the aforementioned, picture-shy friend). She ended up giving us a 4pm appointment with a doctor we'd never seen before. We'll see how it goes. It's a good thing I didn't take the 2pm appointment she'd offered me or I'd have to take Bug out in this:

This was a light moment!

In case you were wondering,

the backwards alphabet in the lower right corner is Sesame Street

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Ok, so we've been to the doctor, who I love. Bug liked her a lot too, she liked her paper/pen even more.

Even though Bug hasn't been eating even half her regular foods and what she has been eating has been mostly juice for the past three days she still managed to gain weight since Monday. She's 20.3lbs. Of course she hasn't pooped today either. Believe me, those bowel movements account for a lot of weight!

Moving past the feces talk.....

Here's what the doctor told me:

• When she got her finger pricked it was to make sure the infection was viral and not bacterial. (I asked for clarification due to, you guessed it! A suggestion from that wonderful friend who has been through it all!)
• Her ears both look perfectly fine.
• The Amoxicillin is working well for the initial infection but she has developed Bronchiolitis.
• We're lucky that we caught it this early because a couple more days and it may have worsened to the point where she would need to be on a Nebulizer. As it is, if her cough doesn't get better within the next two days or if it gets any worse, we have to bring her back in and she would need to use a Nebulizer

She is now on Amoxicillin, Arbutol and Motrin. Good thing she doesn't mind taking meds!

An interesting thing happened this evening. We were upstairs in Bug's room and I was elevating one side of her crib while she played. All of a sudden she became a terrorizing monster. Crawling at warp speed, pulling books off shelves by the dozen, ripping heads of stuffed animals (ok not really that last one), the whole time panting heavily. The whole scene made me think of a rabbit on speed for some reason. Anyway, as I'm starting to freak out thinking I accidentally gave my kid steroids and she's now on a Roid Rage I hear the doctor's voice in my head, "There is a big side effect that I need to tell you about. Arbutol will make her very hyper for a short bit." Ahhh crap. That kid has more energy than she can use in a day and we just multiplied it.

So after spending twenty minutes going Godzilla on her room all of a sudden she crashed. I think she overloaded. She started freaking out crying over the littlest thing and wanted to be held. So I held her, we went downstairs and watched Sesame Street. Then I think she had withdrawals, kept picking imaginary bugs off her arms..... (I jest, don't worry)

So point is, my poor baby is sick, I can hear her coughing in her sleep through the baby monitor as we speak. And I'm sick...just not as sick....and hopefully it'll stay that way.