Lancelot

Hotel stay, allergy testing and ear infections...

Hi Everybody! 

We spent Sunday night at a hotel with Vicki and Alyssa.  We were the only ones there!  We had the entire hotel and water area to ourselves.  There may have been an older couple or two but they didn't swim and Vicki only seen them once near the elevators. 

There were 3 lifeguards that hovered over everything we did since we were the only ones there.  LOL

While we were eating the lifeguards were playing on the slides and in the pools.  We felt bad going back in to swim since they had to stop playing and hover over us. 

Lauren loved it, but she got chilled really fast (it was very warm and she really only had her feet in the water with a little splashing...not under water).  I took her back to the room and realized she had a fever.  Sigh. 

She cried most of the night and I called the Dr Monday morning.  She went to the Dr Monday morning and her right ear is infected.  She has white stuff on her tonsils and they aren't sure why.  They thought strep but the quick test came back negative (they are sending it in), the other thought is thrush, but it's strange that it's ONLY on her tonsils.  She is on an antibiotic everyday for her kidney reflux, so it could be thrush, it's just strange that it isn't in her mouth or down her throat, just on her tonsils.  They are checking for yeast when they check for strep.

She is on a probiotic but maybe it's stopped working?  I've had it for about 8 months...it hasn't expired but maybe it's time to get a new one.

They put her on Amoxicillan for her ear infection so hopefully that will kick-in quickly.  She's not feeling very well right now.

Lilli had a wonderful time at the hotel.  She loves the water and wanted to spend most of her time in the big pool (3 ft deep).  She had a nice time on the kiddy slides too.  She's too short to ride the big slides...they have a 48 inch -minimum height restriction.  They wouldn't even let the girls ride down on our laps.  :(

Lilli and Alyssa had a nice time together, they play great together and always seem to have fun.

Vicki took Lilli and Alyssa to swim Monday morning from about 10-10:45AM while I left to take Lauren to the Dr.  We had to be out of our room at 11AM.

Then she took Lilli to my mom and dad's house and mom drove Lilli to Kazoo to meet me near Lauren's doctor.  We played switcheroo, Lilli came with me and Lauren went with mom back to her house.

Mom took Lauren home so I could take Lilli to her allergist for skin testing.  It was her first time seeing one and it went really well. 

They did skin testing and Lilli doesn't have any allergies!  Yay!

They think her cough is from her acid reflux (GERD).  They said if a test is done to detect reflux and reflux shows up on that test, then the reflux is BAD.  Lilli had a test that showed reflux...that's how we knew she had it.

The pediatrician has had her on Prevacid, but she was on a dosage for a child 2 years of age and under.  The allergist doesn't think her med was strong enough and that's why she's still complaining of her stomach burning and why she keeps getting this cough.

The cough could be a direct result of the reflux, or it could be secondary.  The acid coming up into her throat could be making her cough, or the acid could be coming up when she lays down at night and settling into her sinuses, causing a sinus infection which is causing her cough.

The sinus infection theory makes the most sense to me because the antibiotic Zithromiacin always helps her cough...Zithro will knock out a sinus infection...so??

Anyway, they upped her Prevacid.  She was on 15mg taken once per day, and now she is on 30mg TWICE per day.  That's only for a week and then she'll be on 30mg taken once per day. 

If this doesn't help by her 6 week check-up, then the allergist is going to send her to a pediatric allergist/asthma specialist in Grand Rapids.  She wants her scanned to check her esophagus and other areas to make sure there aren't any other problems going on.

They have not completely ruled out asthma, but the allergist is pretty certain that the problem lies with the reflux.  So we have to work hard in the next 6 weeks to get it under control.

Lilli has to make some diet changes that aren't so easy but I think she'll do ok.  Some if it is going to be hard on her.  She has to cut out chocolate, and that sucks.  No fried/fatty foods.  No citrus (oranges, lemons, grapefruits, tomatoes).  No garlic or onions. 

Nothing to eat 2 hours before bed.  Not even a snack.  That's a tough one for us.  We did it last night though and it was fine, so we'll just have to start eating at 6PM instead of 5:30 and Lilli will need to eat more than her normal few bites before saying she's done.

We went to the grocery store and picked up things she wanted for the week.  We picked up chicken and broccolli, asparagus and donuts (non-chocolate ones).  Bagels and french toast.  Cinnamon rolls and oatmeal cream pies.

Lilli has to take a snack to school now in case they have something chocolate for snack at school...she'll have to eat her own.

Lilli was very tired last night.  She went to bed at a little after 8PM and went right to sleep after saying she wasn't tired.  LOL  It was very light outside and that makes it hard to go to bed.

She woke up this morning on her own but didn't want to go to school.  It's always hard to go back after a few days off, and in this case it was over a week that she had off.  She was fine when she got there and saw her friends. 

Lauren and I are home today.  Hopefully she'll start feeling better and I'll work on housecleaning.  I have laundry to do and I need to boil chicken for Lilli.  I'll make some of her favorite tacos (chicken-cheese-olives) and keep the rest of the chicken to use for her suppers.

She really doesn't like any other meats.  She will eat some things, but chicken and fish are her favorites.  Maybe she'll start eating more if we can get her reflux under control.

I'm trying to upload pictures so I'll post them when I get that done...

Untitled Comment

{ 11:41 AM, Thursday, April 17, 2008 } { Posted by Anonymous }

Hey Lisa,
If the docs there cant get a handle on Lilli's issues I have a friend who's daughter gets asthma really bad with a cough from acid reflux. Don't let it get out of control. They gave her the run around for years and now Hannah has to have another surgery and her lungs are permanently scarred because the reflux would go into the lungs, give her the nasty cough, tummy ache, and asthma. Her's is a much more severe case and more rare, but I dont want to see Lilli have problems like H. They now have a fantastic doc so if you dont feel like Lilli is getting great treatment, let me know if you want the name of this person.