What I thought was an ear infection was really STREP!

nice........ not! :(

Ashton has been complaining of an earache/headache off and on for the better part of the last two weeks. I figured that today would be a good day to get him into the pediatrician to make sure he didn't have anything serious brewing before he has his pediatric psychiatrist appointment next week at CHKD. I'm telling you, nothing has really seemed that off from the normal .... just the fact that he's been complaining of the earache/headache. His appetite has remained the same, he's sleeping just as well (or as bad..... depending on how you look at it) as normal and he hasn't complained of anything else hurting.

Well, his ears looked FINE! The nurse then proceeds to look in his throat and asks me if he's complained of a sore throat. "Nope!" I said, wondering why she's asking. She said his throat was really RED! Ack! But we figured well, he HAS had a runny nose, so maybe it's just drainage. She asked me if he's been around anybody with strep. Again, my answer was "No, not that I'm aware of." I did then point out the fact that there are some parents of children in Ashton's class who do send their sick children to school, when they really should probably be at home. I realize, some parents might not really have a choice, but I digress. We decide to go ahead and run the rapid strep test just to be on the safe side and imagine my surprise when it came up positive! *bangs head* I HAD NO IDEA! If I had realized that THIS was what was brewing over the last week or so, I would have taken him in much sooner. Now he's exposed all of his classmates, teachers, therapists (private and school) to strep, since I'm not sure how long he's actually had it. He has not complained ONE SINGLE TIME of his throat being sore and he's been eating and drinking normally and has not ran a fever at all through out all of this.

So, she writes us a prescription for the Z-pak. We decide to go for the tablets since he takes pills okay (he chews them, which I know is typically a no no, but he does pretty well with it....). BIG! MISTAKE! He takes the first pill (the first days dosage is two pills) ok..... gags and almost throws up but manages to keep it down. But when I gave him that second pill... nope... it came right back up along with whatever else he'd just eaten/taken. L.O.V.E.L.Y. This now means he's thrown up the first days dosage of a five day course of medication. I call the pediatrician back and they call in a prescription for the liquid form and he took that one like a champ .... well, okay... that's pushing it but he did take it without upchucking it. Thank goodness!

So, tomorrow afternoon I'll be washing his sheets/blankets in hot water and tossing his old toothbrush and replacing it with the new one so he doesn't reinfect himself. I'm contemplating washing all of the blankets downstairs on the couches too just because well, he's always wrapped up in them too.

Good news is ...... despite having been on Paxil AND Abilify at the same time (both of which can increase weight) he hasn't really gained any weight at all! He weighed eighty-nine pounds today and that was with his shoes and coat on. At his appointment at the beginning of January, he weighed eighty-seven pounds with no shoes/coat on. So he's maintaining pretty well, YAY!

Well, waiting for Holden to get home from a friend's house .... (well, as I typed that, the doorbell rang... he's home LOL!) and it's almost time to get the boys ready for bed!

I love bedtime..... both the boys' and my own.... *laughs*

Enjoy your evening!