you may be wondering if I am still alive. The answer is NO, I have been mauled by tigers that escaped from Austin's zoo of weird animals rescued from circus and carnivals. Actually that sounds like a better way to die than what I am experiencing now.
The truth is that Kate has still been struggling with her ear/eye/sinus infection. We manage to conquer the double eye infection only to have it return a few times more. Kate now know a song that goes "the infection came back the very next day, thought was a goner, but the infection came back." After all, I dislike cats just as much as eye infections so I thought it was interchangeable in the song.
After exhausting all the antibiotics we could find on God's green earth we decided to give Kate a shot of the strongest antibiotics available. We were told that if this didn't work we would then discuss bring a surgeon in and talk about 'tubes'. At this sleep deprived point in time I wondered why we didn't just go for the 'tubes' in the ear. It's like in childbirth when they say lets push for an hour and then we talk about whether a c-section is needed. Heck, why wait an hour?! Let's talk now.
So Kate had a shot last Thursday and one on Friday. At last, my daughter began emerging from her sickly shell of a toddler. Granted it was a slow transformation, but little by little she perked up and slept longer and actually ate real food!! Hallelujah!
I on the other hand spiraled down into my own sickly state in spite of my joy for my renewed Kate. My scratchy throat which I blamed on allergies became a sore throat I blamed on sleeping with the fan on. After church on Sunday, where I volunteered to carry item after item of responsibility for the Easter weekend festivities, I lost my voice. It only took an hour for it to go from froggy to a squeak.
Sunday evening I had a 102 fever, chills and sweating. I was moaning like crazy and seriously thought someone was trying to steam me alive. I don't get sick often and am not very good at being sick. I stress out about all the things I said I would do and can't and all that I am missing out on.
Thankfully the fever had passed by morning but the last two days have been just as miserable with the worst sore throat ever and still no voice. People call and are greeted with a noise that resembles that of a dying whale at best. When I say sore throat I mean raw, aching, swollen, sandpaper dry, can't swallow breath or talk. it has been good fortune for Kate and I to know sign language. we can communicate quite well with out words, although I think she wants me to sing to her. She crawls in my lap and gets very close to my face and says 'eoeoi' which translates to 'EIEIO', as in Old McDonald had a farm, EIEIO.
The Dr. who saw me this morning says I have some viral thing that everyone has this week. Nothing like being told your so very average and not special by the man you desperately want legal drugs from. He sent me home with yet another prescription for Allerga and said all my problems are due to my allergies and post-nasal drip. What a horrible term 'post-nasal drip'. At least I am not dying or worse - have strep.
Kate also went to the Dr today. He said she looks better but there is still some residual infection in the ear. We decided to do one more shot of the antibiotic in hopes of clearing it up completely and post-poning the "Tubes-talk" until the problem arises again. If all goes well we can survive the end of this season and get into summer with no more ear infections!!
Well, all of this is to prove that I haven't abandoned my blog and I am still alive, barely. Right now I am sitting here writing all the details of our family illnesses so that I don't have to lay in bed and think. My throat hurts so bad that I have called the family pharmacist,my dad, and asked for every known remedy. Then I tried them ALL. The only bad part about this is... I don't know which one really worked or which one I should repeat and when. I laid in bed and considered creating an excel spreadsheet to map out when and what i should do to keep the numb-ness going. I finally relaxed only to wake up every few minutes due to drooling, which happens when your mouth is numb, or coughing. Now I have myself so worried about swallowing fluid into my lungs or choking that I can't relax.
I can see the headlines now:
"YOUNG MOTHER OVER-DOSES ON CHROLASEPTIC SPRAY, DROWNS IN OWN MUCUS"