If It's Not One Damn Thing, It's Another.

Sorry for the radio silence around these parts. It's been a crazy couple of days.

First there was the snow. And as you know, the threat of snow around these parts tends to cause chaos. Bubba's school let out early on Friday, so I picked up both kids on my way home. About an hour after we got home, the flakes started falling, small at first, then thicker and faster. Even Mr. Daddy's office closed early. As the snow started accumulating on the ground, Mr. Daddy and I both began to worry we'd have a repeat of last year. Fortunately, we only got about three inches this time and the power stayed (mostly) on.

The kids had a blast in the snow, especially Punkin. She would have stayed out all day if I'd let her. But, as we are, for the most part, woefully unprepared in the snow-approved clothing department, I made them come in after a while before they caught their death of snow (and mud).

But, we didn't really get to enjoy the snow as much as we'd have liked due to a small but potentially complicated medical issue.

Let me back up a little. Also, warning, slight grossness ahead.

Last summer, Punkin got what looked like an infected bug bite on her knee. It looked like a boil and was extremely painful and I debated taking her to doctor, but by the time I had decided that she needed to go, it was looking a lot better and eventually healed on its own.

Fast forward to about three or four months ago (they've all run together at this point) when Punkin told us that she'd mashed her finger at school and it was really sore. The end of her finger began to get bigger and bigger and redder and redder and finally, when pus began to form under the skin, we took her to the doctor. They had to lance her finger and they tested the pus as a matter of course. I was floored when the test came back positive for MRSA. Surprisingly, the didn't give us any oral antibiotics, only an antibiotic cream and instructions to add 1/2 cup of Clorox to her bath twice a week.

Now, I'll tell you, I was freaked out. If you've never Googled MRSA on Google Images, DON'T. It will haunt your nightmares. But, our pediatrician was pretty matter of fact about it. While he admitted that we probably dodged a bullet last summer, he said that as long as we were diligent about keeping cuts clean and responding to infections and/or boils appropriately, we'd probably be fine.

Since then Punkin has had one more boil come up on her knee -- this after skipping one of the Clorox baths one week. We treated this boil with a combination of the antibiotic cream and some liquid turmeric. I have done a lot of research about natural remedies and found that turmeric is an ayurvedic remedy known for it's strong healing properties. Also, if you're interested, Manuka honey, from New Zealand is a great (though expensive) remedy. Anyway, I had skipped the Clorox bath because the Clorox was drying Punin's skin out, even though I slathered her with lotion after every bath. But, the boils are way worse than dry skin so we're back to twice a week Clorox baths -- which I was comforted to read aren't really that much different than swimming in a chlorinated pool.

Anyway, fast forward again to Friday when I noticed that Punkin was getting what looked like a sty on her eyelid. On Sunday she woke up and it was more swollen and looked a little more like pink-eye. So, we went to the local doc in a box and because of her MRSA they prescribed bactrim and some drops for her eye. After we left I dropped Punkin off at my mom's because they had a date to see the Cinderella ballet.

They had a good trip to the ballet, but when I picked Punkin up on Sunday night, she had just woken up and she was cranky and her eye looked terrible. There was bloody looking pus at the site of the sty and when she cried it looked like she was crying blood! Needless to say, I freaked and we headed straight to the ER.

Three hours later, we saw a doctor. He consulted with an opthalmologist on call who prescribed a very strong antibiotic shot and some stronger eye drops and a followup appointment with him the following day. He declared her "on the mend," but today we're dealing with a severe upset stomach caused by the antibiotics. I've added in some probiotics to her diet, but I'm not sure how long it will take for those to make a difference.

And we have an appointment at 11:30 with her pediatrician to take a look at her and to address an issue still going on with her eye.

So. That's what I've been up to in a very large nutshell. We'll be going to see our 4th doctor in five days. I just want my baby to be well.