Everything’s coming up roses

Where to begin?

I know I was a little MIA last week, so I never mentioned the snot faucet of last week. Sorry? Too graphic? Did I jump right in a little fast there? Let’s try again.

Last weekend, the monkey had a runny nose. Only saying a runny nose sounds a bit benign compared to the actual level of running – she had a marathoning nose. A nose whose procreative powers knew no limits. And thus I bring you back to my point – snot faucet.

So Monday we took her to the doctor, noting that she really had no other symptoms – no fever, eating fine, sleeping fine, all that – just gallons of colorful mucus. He checked her out and diagnosed an ear infection (despite the lack of fever or fussiness) and prescribed an antibiotic. We went on about our week – tissues in hand – until the weekend, when the congestion seemed worse and a cough started on Saturday. We talked about and, given that the office is closed on Sundays and it was a holiday weekend, it seemed like a good idea to bring her back in right away. So we did.

Apparently the antibiotic wasn’t working, so the doctor prescribed another antibiotic, something for the congestion (which no one stocks) and, ugh, a shot – extra strength antibiotic. It was horrible.

But maybe it was working as the mucus marathon seemed to be coasting down to a 5k or something (or the sprints were now a jog? I don’t know. Maybe this metaphor is dead.). So, we figured she was FINALLY getting better.

My husband went to work yesterday morning and when the baby got up, I gave her breakfast and her antibiotic and we decided to go for a walk. When I got her outside and saw her belly (her t-shirt had ridden up) when I put her in the stroller, I turned around and went right back in to the call the doctor. A rash.

Oh man – if it’s not one thing… So I called the doctor and left a message and the nurse called me back. I explained she’d had her 15 mo inoculations recently so it could be that (I later realized that they were 2.5 weeks ago, so it probably couldn’t be that) and she had a new antibiotic, so it could be a rash, but I really didn’t know. She said it could be a lot of things so she called the doctor, who called me back and told me to discontinue the antibiotic as it was either an allergic reaction (in which case it should clear in 24 hours if I stopped) or roseola.

This doctor (our least favorite at this office. Ok, fine, that was being polite. We really don’t like him.) has a very thick accent, so I kept trying to figure out what he meant. Rosacia maybe? While I’d waited for him to call me back, I’d called my husband and pretty much every mom I knew to get reassurance on what this was – none of the suggestions had sounded like that… Anyway, he said if she had no fever and seemed happy I shouldn’t worry, but should bring her in the next day.

This morning – I swear it looked worse. You definitely didn’t need to go outside to see it in the light. It was apparent everywhere (well, it’d been pretty much everywhere the day before – but maybe not so much on her face). We went to the doctor (we managed an appt for 8:40 so I was just a little late for work) and he (same one we don’t like) said, yes, it’s roseola. Apparently this is a common viral infection in kids under 2 – it normally starts with a high fever for a few days and then this rash.

Overall, he did NOT give us great info. I asked a lot of questions. He mostly seemed to keep talking about what he was talking about rather than giving responses. Then my husband repeated my questions and we actually got some answers. Oh yeah, I’m loving this guy now. Let me give an example:

Me: Should we tell parents of other kids she’s seen recently about this?
Dr.: You could do that. (Blah, blah about the progression from fever to rash.)
Me: Do we need to keep her away from other kids now?
Dr.: You could do that. (Blah, blah blah about the rash)
Hubby: Is she contagious?
Dr.: No, she shouldn’t be.

Ok, so why would I quarantine her if she’s not contagious? (Apparently, it’s sort of like chicken pox – it’s contagious before you have the rash. Maybe. Who knows? I think I picked that up from web MD.)

So my husband took her home and I went to work. I stopped in at lunch and the rash looked WAY worse. Much more pronounced on her face, the bumps seemed bigger / redder / more raised. My husband was just coming in from an errand and she was out cold asleep (thereby making her lethargic and much more worrisome to me!). We discussed our options of other doctors (don’t you think the doc should have mentioned we could expect the rash to get worse?) or an ER this evening.

I guess this is what parenting is all about…

Am I the only one or does everyone else get paranoid about illness (esp. these ugly rashes)? Has anyone else’s kids had roseola? (Any more surprise symptoms that my doctor didn’t think I’d want to know about?!)