"Have you met your deductible for the year yet?"

That was the question from the finance lady in the ER at 2:30 this morning. Let's see-prenatal care, birth of a baby with an extra day stay, about 100 pediatrician visits, oh yeah, and a 6 day hospital stay with surgery!! We don't have a deductible, but boy if we did, we would have met it!!

Now, let me back up. So we all know that Julianna was seen over the weekend at the dr's office with an ear infection and a "throat infection." They tried to put her on Omnicef, but she throws it up. So they put her (back) on Augmentin. Fast forward to last night.

I was getting Julianna ready for bed, at 7. I went to change her diaper and noticed red bumps in the creases of her legs. The further I looked, they were around her belly button, in her arm pit, on her elbows, wrists, knees, back,etc. I immediately thought that she had the chicken pox. I called my neighbor, Lisa, and my mom. They both came over to look. (Lisa, 37 wks pg, had kept my kids yesterday while I worked. Great!)



After perusing Julianna for a while, some of us thought that it was the chicken pox, others an allergic reaction.....to her antibiotics possibly?

After the calling the after hrs nurse and determining that it was safe for me to put her to bed, I did. She slept until 11 and then was very fussy, and not happy, or comfortable. She was rubbing and rubbing on her ears. When I looked, the were very red and very swollen. Then I noticed spots on her face, that weren't there before. I called the nurse back and she said that I needed to take her in, to the ER. (Says that don't recommend giving Benadryl to infants, so I couldn't just do that from home.)


I packed her up, and bundled us both us, for a trip to the ER. Phil, who is very sick with maybe the flu, obviously stayed home with Chase. We got to the ER at 1 am and luckily there was no one else in the waiting room (good thing about living in the suburbs!).

They looked her over and determined that she was allergic to her antibiotics and said to stop taking them. And her ears were clear. They then gave her some Benadryl!!! and sent us home!! That sure was one expensive dose of Benadryl.

(After the pediatrician's appt today)

So, anyway, we got home at 3 am (I have yet to be asleep since the night before). Luckily Julianna was out like a light from the medicine and the long, warm car ride home. I put her right to bed and was able to get 4 hrs of sleep before she woke up again.

She was actually worse when she woke up. More spots on her face and her face appeared more puffy in general. So I called the nurse back and she told me to immediately give her more Benadryl and get to the pediatrician's office as soon as I could. So I call my neighbor, Lisa. She comes to get Chase and (feed him, dress him, etc.) take him to preschool for me. I call my boss and tell her that it doesn't look like I'll be making it in today.



At the dr's office, the dr isn't freaking out about her at all. He just says that it probably is an allergic reaction to any penicillin drug and that we will avoid those in the future. (So, no Omnicef, no amoxicillin, no augmentin....) He says that there aren't many other antibiotics left, but that the next time she gets an infection, we will just have to look at what will treat that infections best, outside of the above meds.

She is now hopefully taking a nap, with her huge, red, welts all over her face and body. My poor, sweet Ju-Ju! She just can't catch a break. As for me, I'm going to try and catch a nap also!