Poor Reese :(

Last Thursday I took Reese to the walk in clinc because she had a very bad cough.  The doctor said she had an ear infection and gave us amoxicillin. 

Friday morning Reese woke up and looked really sick.  She was lethargic and crabby which is unusual for her.  Friday afternoon she was sick to her stomach a few times and then the diarrhea started.  The puking only lasted for a couple of days but the other has lasted nearly a week now :(  You can tell she feels really terrible.  She did not even want to stand by herself or even walk for the first 3 days.  I think she just felt really crappy and really weak.  She didn't want to eat or drink and I was worried she was getting dehydrated so I took her to the Stollery E.R. on Sunday afternoon.  The pediatrician there said as long as her tongue is moist, she is not dehydrated but that she was probably borderline and to ensure she drank an appropriate amount of fluid.  The problem was, she didn't want to open her mouth for anything ... which led to syringing pedialite and another electrolyte drink the Stollery pediatrician gave us, into her mouth until she felt like drinking it!  Thankfully the syringing didn't last long and she never did get dehydrated.  He also checked her ears and 1 was red, but not too bad so he suggested we stop the antibiotics (thus far she had only had 2 doses and had puked up the rest).

Tuesday Dr. Radisic checked her, since we were there anyways for Em's 3 yr check up.  He said both her ears were red and he could see a little bit of fluid in one.  At that point I didn't think her ears were causing her too much trouble.  She wasn't waking up screaming at night (sure sign of an ear infection!!) and wasn't pulling at them at all.  Dr. Radisic says that 50% of all ear infections clear up on their own, without antibiotics.  We are very sensitive to this fact and prefer to not use antibiotics if not necessary!  I worry about causing antibiotic resistant bacteria from the over use of antibiotics and/or using at inappropriate times.  According to Dr. Radisic, the only true way to tell if the ear infection is bacterial or viral is to use a needle to extract fluid from the ear.  Which is only done for research purposes, obviously a child wouldn't tolerate that procedure very well!!  So we decided to wait it out and see if she got worse ...

Which brings us Wednesday night, when she did in fact get worse :(  Wednesday and Thursday evening she went to bed fine and slept for approx. 7 hours before waking up crying and screaming.  Obviously my first thought is "ear infection!"  So off we were to the doctor's office AGAIN today!  And sure enough, both ears are red and bulbous.  The doctor let me look and then showed me a picture of a normal ear.  Quite a difference between the two.  Now the only issue is that she has had diarrhea and been sick to her stomach and is lacking "good" gut bacteria right now.  This is a problem because antibiotics kill all bacteria - good and bad.  And killing the good bacteria leads to ... diarrhea.  So the game plan today is, to wait another day and see how her "gut" is!  Hopefully the diarrhea stops, she sleeps all night and is on the mend and we don't have to give her the antibiotics.  Otherwise, we'll wait until she has not had diarrhea for 24 hrs and start the antibiotics.  I've been giving her probiotics that we got from the naturopath, hoping that they will replenish that good but bacteria.  And trying to feed her yogurt, but she's still not interested in much eating!! 

Next year we are DEFINITELY getting the flu shot!!  All of us!  I've always been a supporter of the flu shot and e usually get it, but didn't this year.  I wonder if Reese would have gone through this, had she had the flu shot ...

Feel better soon Reese, we hate seeing you like this and quite honestly we are very tired!!!!

Say a little prayer for Reese :)

xo
Tracy