RSV!!! SHE HAS RSV!!

 When we went to the doctor’s office on Thursday, our nurse practitioner repeated Minnie’s RSV and flu swabs, even though she tested negative on Tuesday. The lab batches flu and RSV tests, so sometimes we get results right away (like on Tuesday, when we got three negative results while we were still in the office), and sometimes it takes awhile. We got Thursdays results on Friday, while Dorothy and Minnie and I were getting ready to leave for the girls’ appointment.

AN ASNWER!! This is why she still feels bad and gets fevers! BECAUSE SHE ALSO HAS A VIRUS.

So many layers of sickness in the last few weeks for poor Minnie!!!

Dorothy still feels kind of yucky and has either the very beginning of a bacterial ear infection or the very end of a viral one and probably also has RSV. She wasn’t swabbed since she was fever free and sounded great upon examination and is getting better. She should be able to go to school and dance on Monday! Yay!

The Rocephin shot was really good for Minnie. On Thursday, her throat was still red and covered in white spots, and her left ear was STILL INFECTED. She got the shot at 4:20pm on Thursday, and by Friday at noon her throat and ear looked great, and her breathing sounded so much better. She has not been on the wrong antibiotics, but she has maybe not been on the right doses to fight all of the infections, especially since her diagnoses have been piecemeal— an urgent care ear infection here, an urgent care strep test there, another urgent care pneumonia here, etc. 

Is her pneumonia bacterial when she has a respiratory virus? Maybe? Are major antibiotics the best course of treatment no matter the answer to the previous question? Yes because she was SO SICK and had a couple of other bacterial infections going on at the same time. Am I worried about c. diff? I MEAN YOU GUYS KNOW ME BY NOW. (But will she eat the absolutely delicious kiddie probiotic gummies I bought? Of course she won’t. SHE IS THREE).

A couple takeaways:

 1. Even though her nursery school is part day and caters to the SAHM crowd, people are still sending their sick kids to school because what kid DOESN’T have a cough and a runny nose right now? How many times since Halloween have I noted Minnie’s gross boogers when I picked her up on the playground???  So. I am going to be way more conservative about sending Minnie to school when she feels even a teeny bit cruddy. I thought since she was well into her ear infection antibiotics and fever-free, for example, she was OK to go to school even tough she had a snotty nose. WHERE SHE GOT RSV on top of all of the things.. Our nurse practitioner said she could go back when she has been fever-free without meds for 24 hours. I asked when she should go assuming childcare is not an issue, and she said she’d keep her home until the cough fully resolves, which could be 2-4 weeks. So the plan is to start her winter break now :)

2. I am going to do an even better job of making sure to call the doctor during business hours and requesting a pediatrician or pediatric nurse practitioner because Minnie got much better care this week versus last week’s urgent care experience. I know this is not always possible because of the timing of symptoms, etc, but I’m going to try.

I am super sad to miss her in-class holiday dance performance in her cute little preschool hip/hop and ballet class, and I feel really bad missing swimming lessons so many times in a row, but we are just going to stay home  and get fully better. (She will have to come to campus with me for a meeting on Thursday but it’s going to be fine).

She still does not feel amazing, is doing a nebulizer treatment every few hours, and got a fever last night in the late afternoon. Her nose is stuffy, and she is coughing a lot. But! She is SO MUCH BETTER than she was on Tuesday-Thursday.

Matching masks at the doctor’s office

BLANKETS for the second night of Hanukkah— loving this cozy theme

So there you have it— better but not all the way and hanging in there for a weekend at home.

(the nurse practitioner gave me a hug and said she was so relieved that she made the right call to not admit Minnie on Thursday and lost actual sleep over the decision, and I felt SO VALIDATED in my EXTREME worry)

Also, you guys need this TJ’s delight: