This Week (and it's only Wednesday!)

Gosh, this week has been awful. It actually started last week where Blaise (the baby) was sick with a pretty high fever (I didn't actually take his temp, I just gave him Tylenol...apparently the staff at the Health Unit thinks I'm weird for that, but I'm a mom - of four!). He got better after 4 days, and honestly, I kind of like them when they're sick 'cause they just rest all day and they're pretty easy - pathetic, but easy.

Well Friday, Toby came home from school with a weird pink ring around his eye. It wasn't like pink eye, it was more like someone had drawn the line with a Pepto Bismol colored crayon. Saturday he had a fever, so it was more Tylenol and laying around. Sunday he was still not well, so I stayed with him while Dylan took the other kids to church. Monday - an embassy holiday - he had a fever of 103.5. So more Tylenol and lying around. Tuesday his eye swelled up - the same eye that had the pink ring on Friday - so we took him to the doctor. Now, don't fault me for being a bad mom, I REALLY thought he just had the same thing Blaise had had the previous week. The embassy doc said "He's got periorbital cellulitis and needs to be admitted to the hospital." Dylan and I were like, is this an emergency or urgent? He says "urgent", so we were like, let's take him to the Pediatrician and see what he says. Maybe he'll just give him high dose antibiotics and we can keep him home. I went to pick up a friend's daughter from the preschool, 'cause Seth was going home with his friend and she'd had car trouble. When I arrived, I was met at the door by Seth's teacher. "Seth has pink eye!"...so now I'm taking Seth and Ava home and Nicholas (Seth's friend) was just devastated. Luckily we had the appointment for Toby with the pediatrician.

So the pediatrician says, "He has a bad ear infection, strep throat, and conjunctivitis. He's very ill." He prescribed antibiotics for home, with the first few doses pretty close together. And Seth also has pink eye. Oh, and the pediatrician seemed totally surprised when we said that Toby has never had an ear infection as he found evidence in his left ear of previous ear infections. After this whole ordeal is over we must take him to an ear, nose and throat doctor.

This goes into a whole long problem that I have with the military/embassy system of healthcare for those of us without a MTF (Military Treatment Facility) anywhere close. We were ready to take Toby to the hospital, but changed our minds when Tricare/International SOS would not approve the children's hospital in town - where the State Department sends their kids. They approved another hospital which, come to find out, does not admit children.

My dear friend Lisa asked me how we keep our kids so healthy at one point and I told her I didn't know. Now I think I do, our kids go undiagnosed.

But here's my Poland difference for the month. We went to fill the prescriptions (of which there were many). In the States you would get the prepared antibiotic (it's a liquid) from the pharmacy, but here you get the powder with directions in Polish of how to prepare it yourself! Have fun!

But I did manage to finish two LOs yesterday for LOAD:

I just wanted to use the last of the Disney paper that I bought on the cruise because I can't imagine what else I would use it for...particularly the one with the boat. I don't like either of these LOs, but I threw them together really fast (like less that 30 min per LO) because I just wanted to get them done yesterday. I wasn't in a real creative mood as I was trying to decide what to do with all my other kids when my middle boy was in the hospital. I'm glad he's not there.

Update: I just got a call from Dylan and I mixed the antibiotic incorrectly (SURPRISE, SURPRISE!) so I have been giving Toby too much antibiotic in the last three doses. However, the Health Unit is aware...whatever good that does.