Update on Peanut

Well Peanut is still sick. I took him to the doc on Thurs due to his asthma attacks at school and he was put on a 3-day antibiotic (azithromycin/Z-Pak) for sinus infection. Saturday night he woke up crying and holding his ear. This happened last year. He had a sinus infection that never cleared up and progressed to an ear infection and eye infection as well. Turns out, he was allergic to amoxicillin and a different antibiotic eventually cleared up the whole mess.

This time, the antibiotic that worked previously was immune to this strain. We were up all night Saturday and even went to the emergency room around 3 a.m. We promptly left as soon as we saw the volume of ill people waiting to be seen. His temp went up to 102 and by Sunday morning he was completely miserable and in a lot of pain. I took him to Urgent Care and three hours later, finally seen, as he was vomiting. He was diagnosed with an ear infection and put on another antibiotic (Sulfa family) with ear drops for the pain. He was vomiting and could keep nothing down all day including the antibiotics. Monday morning I called his doc and the nurse stated he has a stomach bug on top of everything else and to hold off on the antibiotics for 24 hours to see if we could get his stomach okay first; and then deal with the infections second. I kept him on a bland diet through Monday and that seemed to help. However, his fever and pain had not subsided and pain was now in the second ear.

I took him to the doc yesterday (Tuesday) after trying one more time to get him to take the foul antibiotic. He, of course, gagged and threw that up. I would too- that stuff tasted soooo bad. The doc took a look at his ears and said they were terrible and could see the not-so-great condition he was in and ordered a new oral antibiotic (Cefdinir) and two simultaneous injections of another antibiotic. Apparently these shots were incredibly painful as the doc said they put a numbing agent in with the shot instead of the usual sterile saline. Peanut was lethargic but once he got the shots he cried and screamed so hard. I felt absolutely terrible for him and for the nurses who had to administer the shots. I picked him up off the table and he promptly vomited. At least I got it all in the sink. My aim is awesome after these years of practice .

The doc says we have to watch for any allergic reaction in Peanut because kids who are allergic to amoxicillin can be allergic to this family of antibiotics as well. Yippee. I am to call the doc today and he has another appointment tomorrow morning to see how his ears are. I assume that if he does not tolerate the oral antibiotic, he will need further injections. I think it is three days worth of simultaneous shots…ugghhhh. So far though, he has tolerated the new antibiotic and is in a lot less pain than 12 hours ago. Thank goodness. This has just absolutely sucked. I will keep updating…