Update - Winter 2016

I want to get this post up before I forget and it's Tuesday and I already feel like I'm forgetting.

Anyway - every winter we have been going up to the Wisconsin Dells with framily (you know...the friends that are like family).  We rent a giant house, hang out, chill out, complain about long Wisconsin winters, drink too much, eat too much, and have a great time.  We don't stay at one of those giant water parks, but we have a club house with a pool that is just perfect for our kiddos.  We have been looking forward to this weekend for awhile.

Oliver had a pretty rotten week of sleep.  We really blamed it on the fact that he is still adjusting to not sleeping in our arms.  Then we blamed it on teeth (finally that bottom one popped through!)  We blamed it on a lot of things.

I've been so busy at work lately, that I was a little nervous about getting out of there between 3 and 330 on Friday, but finally Andy and I had a plan.  He would pick Eleanor up from school and then go get Oliver.  Then they would come and pick me up and we'd leave.  --May I also mention here that Friday morning I was assembling my breakfast casserole for Saturday morning - I had cracked eggs in a plastic bag for easy transporation to the Dells, but decided to preassemble at home.  I poured a cup and a half into the bag with the 6 eggs and dumped in 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  I turned to put the teaspoon in the sink and heard the bag tip over and 6 raw eggs and all the contents of the bag poured over my counter, down my cabinets, down my leg, all over my floor, all over my rug.  And I basically just stood there.  GDI...

We got that mess cleaned up, I ran upstairs to change and left for work.  At 2:30, Andy called.  Daycare called and thought Oliver had an ear infection - and given our recent stay at Children's, they wanted us to know before going into the weekend.  Little did they know our car was packed and we were ready to head out of town for the weekend!

I got on the phone with our pediatrician, Andy went to get Eleanor, came to pick me up and then we went to get Oliver.  We all ended up going to the doctor's office because we thought we could still leave after the appointment...

We saw the nurse and then Dr. Dan came in.  Oliver, indeed, had an ear infection.  He finished his antibiotic on Monday and by Friday, he had an ear infection.  Dr. Dan said he would need an oral antibiotic on top of the ear drops.  I tried SO hard to keep it together...I didn't look at him.  I didn't look at Oliver.  I didn't look at Andy.  I stared out the window and tried talking.

This is ridiculous.  I literally can't keep my kid healthy.  He's been on an antibiotic since December.  He's been in the hospital.  I can't handle it anymore.  I felt the tears running down my cheek.  I mean, looking at Oliver, he looks so happy all the time.  But he can't possibly remember a time he felt good and he can't possibly remember a time he wasn't on an antibiotic.

So, to make a long story short, we all agreed it was time to go back to ENT.  Dr. Dan thought maybe we'd finally discuss removing Oliver's adenoids, but that would be up to ENT.

I hate that we are at our pediatrician's office every week, but Doc reassured me I wasn't being labeled as "that mom".  Oliver has been really sick and has had some really bad luck.  It wasn't like I kept bringing him in only to be told nothing was wrong with him...or that it's viral and we need to let it runs it's course.

Dr. D did suggest that if the ear infections don't clear up after another ENT visit we would need to look at running blood tests to see if there wasn't something more going on with Oliver - some sort of autoimmune disorders.  I like how Dr. D always talks to us about next steps.  I like to know our road map.  However, we all agreed we didn't think we were looking at autoimmune disorders.  Oliver WAS healthy for July, August, and September.  The tubes worked for awhile.  And when he gets sick, it's not with obscure diseases that no one else gets...it's chronic ear infections with a bout of pneumonia.  So...there's hope.

I called ENT right away on Monday and I'm able to get Oliver in next Tuesday.  One week from today.  And I'm just so ready for this next step.  We've been doing the same thing expecting different results and finally we are going to do something different.

As for the rest of the weekend.  Eleanor was SO excited to go to the Dells and it broke my heart to tell her we couldn't go on Friday.  By the time we left the doctor's office and needed to get prescriptions, it was just too late to go.  And we were probably a little nervous to take O to far away, given how quickly his last virus went downhill!

Eleanor got huge tears in her eyes and started crying in the doctor's office.  We walked her through our plan and said either one of us or all of us would take her up first thing tomorrow morning.  We let her pick a place for dinner and told her we wouldn't say no to anything...which means she chose McDonalds!

We all go to sleep in our own beds and the next morning we were on our way to the Dells.

Alright, I really ran through this, but I wanted to get it documented and posted.  It's without a lot of detail and it's REALLY without emotion, but it's up...

And hopefully I'll get around to documenting the rest of the weekend, which still turned out to be a great time!