Ari is on the mend

Ari is finally recovering from her strange sickness. Wednesday and Thursday were cranky days for Ari. If anyone has ever met Ari, this should come as a surprise in and of itself -- Ari is never unhappy. For a minute there, I was beginning to think that this was the beginning of her tantrum toddler stage, and I nearly lost my mind over it. On Friday evening, we noticed that she seemed to have a fever, so we gave her some Tylenol and sent her to bed. Saturday morning, it was apparent that she had definitely come down with something. Jake took her to get checked out at the urgent care right next to our house, and they diagnosed her with an ear infection and possible intestinal bacterial infection. They put her on an antibiotic called Bactrim that makes you heave just smelling it. Well, it goes without saying that things usually get worse before they get better, and they sure did. Ariana peaked at a 106.7 degree fever that night, and Jake took her to the emergency room. They gave her 700 mg. (plus the 200 mg. I already gave her) of Ibprofin, ran all kinds of bloodwork on my poor baby, gave her a catheder, and ran an IV because the fever had severely dehydrated her (all not without sticking her a dozen times before finding a vein). The bloodwork & urine came back normal (white blood cell counts normal, etc.). They were left with no diagnosis. Somehow, we manage to stump doctors a lot -- very frustrating. They suggested we admit her due to her dehydration, but seeing as though it was already 2:30 AM and she needed sleep desperately, we elected to bring her home. The next morning, her fever had gone down, but not substantially -- she was at 105.5 degrees. We kept her on her increased doses of Ibprofin (because the Tylenol doesn't really work for us) and tried to keep giving her fluids as instructed. Well, we needed to get her to eat, because the Bactrim is to be given on a full stomach, but she refused. We are still on the Bactrim (1.5 tsp. 2 x per day), and it is pure torture for everyone. She refuses to swallow it, and when she does, she often throws it right back up. One documented side effect of the medicine is a decrease in appetite. Ariana will barely eat a thing. She'll scream if I put her favorite foods in her mouth (blueberries, cheerios, yogurt, whatever). It is a chore to get her to eat cake! All this, of course, exasserbates the problem of her keeping the medicine down. I called the urgent care today for a change in antibiotic, and they told me that I could either keep her on the Bactrim until Saturday or switch to Amoxicillin (which is only 6 ml. versus 7.5) but keep her on it until next Thursday. I am torn. I think I'll get the new med and let Ari decide which she prefers. I think that I remember Amoxicillin tasting pretty good actually. Anyway, today is the second day that Ariana has not woken up with a fever, convincing me that she is finally on the road to recovery. She is still pretty darn tired, so I've been giving the kids two naps a day instead of one (Gabe loves his naps still!). Hopefully, we'll see the light at the end of the tunnel soon.