Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Winter illness

We've been going to the pediatrician a lot lately.  


First, my daughter had strep.  She had not-the-typical symptoms.  Specifically, she had such a bad stomachache that we thought she had appendicitis.  We went to the ER on a Saturday afternoon where...they said it "didn't look like strep" because her throat wasn't red and she didn't have a fever.  (By the way, she started running a fever while she was there.)  My daughter went through lots of other fun things (urine test, an x-ray, and a blood test).  Then, they gave her an IV because she was "vomiting" (she threw up exactly once in the morning--this was eight hours later, and she even ate potato chips in the waiting room).  Their conclusion?  Stomach bug.  I didn't agree.  When I asked for a flu test I was told: "I'm not in the business of swabbing kids' noses for flu".


Anyway, after a very draggy day at school several days later (she had no fever, so she went to school), we find out that she had strep all along.  Great work, ER.  


Less than a week after finishing the antibiotics for strep, my daughter was diagnosed with the flu.  Husband was next, then my son, then me.  Fun for the whole family!  


No, we did not get flu shots.  But, that is another story for another post.  Suffice it to say: the flu shot was ineffective this year anyway as it did not include the "A" strain that we likely had (I know the kids had Influenza A for sure), and many of the people coming down with the flu this year were in fact vaccinated.  There were plenty of articles on-line about how this year's vaccine did not match the viruses that are out there.  So, please remember that when your first question to somebody isn't "how are you?", but "didn't you have flu shots?"  I realize the question comes from a place of fear--they want to hear that we didn't have shots so that they can assure themselves that they won't get the flu because they were vaccinated.  I hear that--I've been there myself in the past.


Anyway, yesterday, we were back to the pediatrician as my daughter has strep--AGAIN.  Not the same as she had a strep test the day of her flu test so we know the original strep was gone.  This time her throat looks disgusting.  If she'd even admitted that her throat hurt originally, and I had looked in there, I would have seen that there was something up with that throat!  She's going to be living on probiotics and Vitamin C for the next 10 days.  I hope we get out of this illness kick very soon!

No comments: