Update

Brianna seems to be doing better. There are almost no signs of her rash. I took her to the doctor today and he said her ears look great! We are going to take her to an allergist in a few weeks to see if she has any allergies that may be contributing to all of these ear infections. Please keep us in your prayers and I will let you know what the allergist says!

First Trip to the ER

Brianna has been a sick little girl this year. In early January, she went to the doctor for a sinus infection and an ear infection that took 3 rounds of antibiotics to clear up. Three weeks ago, we took her to the Urgent Care because she woke up running a fever and having difficulty breathing. It turns out she had an upper respiratory, sinus and ear infections (it had only been a little over two weeks since her last ear re-check). The Urgent Care prescribed Amoxicillin and it cleared up the respiratory and sinus infections but did not clear up the ear infection. She was still being pretty fussy and since we knew that Amoxicillin did not treat her last ear infection, we called our pediatrician and asked for him to look at her ears. Sure enough, her left ear was still inflamed. So he switched her to Omnicef. The last time she was on Omnicef she developed a rash but the pediatrician thought it was due to the virus that caused her cold. Well, on Thursday I noticed a similar rash developing. By Friday morning, it was starting to spread and she had ping-pong to golf ball size knots on both of her feet. I called the doctor who advised to stop the antibiotic and give her Benadryl for the rash. The rash continued to get worse. This morning she came into our room at 1 o'clock crying and scratching. When we turned on the light to look at her, she looked awful! We called the on-call nurse for our pediatrician and she advised we take her to the ER. After examining her, they administered steroids and Benadryl through and IV. Given the circumstances, she did really well. Mommy cried right along with her when they put in her IV. She feels and looks better today. The staff at the ER did an excellent job! I guess we won't be giving her Omnicef anymore!

"Ucky!"

...that is one of Brianna's favorite words to describe things. Most of the time she uses it accurately, sometimes not. If she were to say it now in reference to how the two of us feel it would be dead on! We took her to Urgent Care on Sunday after she woke up at three in the morning running a fever, breathing heavily and asking Daddy if he got the phone because it was ringing. Once there, they diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection, possible sinus infection and possible ear infection and gave her some amoxicillin. I was shocked that the doctor could not identify an ear infection! Maybe it was just in the beginning stages Sunday morning, but all he told us was that it looked red. He did not even tell us about the URI, we read that on the discharge paperwork! I have decided that no matter how sick she is I will call and schedule an appointment with her pediatric after hours clinic (which I would have done in the first place if I had known that her after hours clinic had switched to seeing patients by appointment only)because I just was not satisfied with the care she received. Not that it was bad, it just wasn't good for a toddler. I have since confirmed that she does indeed have an ear infection when our family doctor kindly took a peek in her ears when I went this morning for sinus pressure, congestion and a sore throat. Now I am on antibiotics too! Plus additional allergy medicine.
After our last go-round with an ear infection (it lasted about 6 weeks and took 3 rounds of antibiotics to get rid of) our pediatrician said if she was back in a few weeks with another one we would probably be sent to a specialist. That was two weeks ago last Friday. Bobby and I talked and feel that although we would rather her not have to have surgery, we don't want her to keep suffering with these ear infections. So if we get sent to the ENT, we are not going to fight it because with spring coming on us and the strong possibility that she has allergies it probably is not going to get much better soon.
Please keep us in your prayers, we have been fighting one illness after another literally since the beginning of the year. Pray for complete health to be restored to all of our bodies! Thanks!