The Rest of the Story

Sorry to leave y'all hanging for so long after the soul-cleansing vent of a post on the 12th, but this is the first time I've been able to really gather my thoughts long enough to catch up. Picking up where I left off...

On Thursday (5/13), I took Nola to daycare and dropped her off. Mom left Hot Springs at the ridiculous hour of 6:30 AM to come up here and save the day. She picked up Nola at daycare at about 10:15 and took her home. They enjoyed 2 great days together at our house - away from other kids' germs and surrounded by LaLa's TLC.

This obviously made "Sister Britches" feel a little better. You can just tell it by how happy she looks...

Mom and I took Nola to see Dr. Schaefer on Thursday after school for her 3rd rocephin shot. He said that her ears were looking a lot better. He started her on azithromycin (an antibiotic) and said that when we come back on 5/28 for her 4 month checkup, he'll make the referral to the ENT for tubes. I left there feeling really good about the possibility that things were about to make a turn for the better!

Saturday morning, Mom and Caleb packed up her Jeep and headed down the mountain. Caleb was so excited to get to spend a few days with LaLa and Pops. They stopped off in Hot Springs very briefly, but then went on down to Fordyce to spend the night at the deer camp with Pops. Caleb was in Heaven. He got to ride his 4wheeler, play in the dirt, play in the rain and - his favorite part - ride in the back of the truck while Pops drove (pretty slowly) down some dirt roads. Mom said she had never seen him so incredibly happy. Mom has some pictures that I'll have to get. They brought him home on Tuesday afternoon and he was overflowing with stories about fishing, boating, 4-wheeling and hanging out with Pops. He was also glad to see his Mama, Daddy and Nola!

Rudy, Nola and I had a pretty low-key weekend. We stayed around the house, went to church and basically just tried to relax. Monday was a normal day around here, with the exception of Caleb being gone. (It was really quiet.) I worked all day, had staff meeting after work, Rudy worked out after work and I picked up Nola at daycare, planning to run some errands. She was sleeping when I got there, so I gathered up her belongings and then sat down to feed her. The whole time I was feeding her, the 2 teachers were telling me about how many kids were out sick with one sort of illness or another and that there was a rash in the other baby room that had sent home 6 of the 7 kids. (Do you see where this is going?) When I tried to burp her, I felt how blazingly hot her head felt against my cheek. I took her temperature and it was 102. Not knowing what else to do at 5:00 in the afternoon with the pediatrician's office closed, I took her straight to the ER. Rudy joined us there and we listened to the doctor tell us that there was really nothing they could do for her except tylenol, so they sent us home. Before we left, her fever went up to 102.5, but they sent us home anyway. He said that because her coloring was good and she was consolable that he wasn't too concerned. When we got home from ER, I called our pediatrician's exchange, because (all due respect to the ER doc), I'd rather get some info from a pediatrician. The pediatrician called back and said that it sounded like it was a viral fever and to just give her tylenol every 4 hours. He suggested that we bring her in on Tuesday.

Rudy stayed home with Nola on Tuesday and Wednesday. He took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday morning. Dr. Youngblood looked her over and said that he thought she had a "digestive virus" and it just had to run its course. He said if she wasn't better in 5 days, she needed to come back. On Tuesday, her fever went up and down from one hour to the next and she slept a lot. By Wednesday night, she seemed to be doing great. She hadn't had fever for 24 hours and we felt pretty good about taking her back to daycare...and getting Rudy back to work. I got up Wednesday morning and packed everyone and everything in the car. When we got to the daycare, I dropped Caleb off at his classroom and then took Nola down to hers. As I started to get her out of her seat, I saw that she had a rash. I felt so deflated. I took her in the room and showed the rash to the teacher. I asked her if that's what everyone else had. She nodded and smiled and said it was. I packed Nola back up and off we went. I took her to work with me, called Rudy and he came to get her. (Again...I have NO sick leave left.) He took her back to the pediatric office and saw Dr. Scherer who said she had roseola, which is a non-contagious rash that kids get AFTER they have a virus. (Caleb had it once too.) The doctor wrote a note for Nola to return to daycare, so Rudy dropped her off and made it back to work before lunch. Here's a picture that he sent me from the doctor's office. You can't really see the rash because the picture is from his phone, but doesn't it kind of look like she's asking why in the world she has to go to the doctor so much?!?

Nola was fine on Friday, but was very fussy on Saturday. It's Sunday now and the rash is almost all gone. She's had a good day today. I'm hoping she'll keep that up for a while. (Hoping, Praying, Pleading, Whatever it Takes!)