STREP

You know when a stomach bug is in your house and you are just waiting absolutely sure everyone will eventually get it? It turns out, in our family, that strep is actually more contagious than that.

I had been suffering with allergies and a sore throat for a couple weeks. On Easter it seemed worse and by that night I couldn't sleep or swallow. I called the doc first thing in the morning and made an appt. We all see the same family doctor, who we love, but he is located about 25 minutes from our home. He confirmed Strep and sent me off with my prescription which I then dragged three kids thru Target to fill (and then hit up Sonic happy hour for a nice cold drink).

All was calm until the next weekend when Andy and I both seemed to be coming down with a BAD cold. So we drove all the way to the doctor on Tuesday and Andy was diagnosed with ear infections from the allergies and strep mixture in our home. So off we went to Target to fill the script (and of course got the boys slushes from Sonic Happy Hour) That afternoon Evan wiped out on his scooter and got a bad road rash down the side of his arm near his elbow.

Wednesday night Gabi said her throat was itchy but she had no fever and I thought it was nothing because surely enough time had passed since I went on antibiotics. Thursday morning she woke up with an awful sore throat and 103 fever. So I again drove to the doctor, confirmed strep, dragged three kids thru Target (hit up Sonic happy hour) and went home. Gabi not only had the strep throat she had strep impetigo resulting in pimples all around her mouth. She had this so bad that it was obvious. After her diagnosis, I realized that Andy and I had the same thing just not as bad. The doctor gave me a script for Evan and said to go ahead and fill it if his throat started hurting or his face broke out.

All this time his arm was not healing. Friday morning I was changing his bandage before we left for school and his wound was green and there were pimples in a clocklike circle all the way around his wound. Chad was working from home to be with Gabi while I went to work. So he called the doctor and they advised that we bring him in. So Chad drove all the way to Paoli, confirmed strep (in his arm), and went to Target to fill a prescription for an oral antibiotic (and hit up Sonic happy hour). Chad was also given a prescription for himself and told to go ahead and fill it because he was starting to show symptoms. Evan was asleep in the car by the time they got home at about 3 and went right to bed. He woke up and sat on the toilet delirious with fever and screaming and crying about two hours later. At this point I was worried sick that the infection was in his bloodstream. After we tried to dose him with the medicine (which he spit back out) he went back to bed and slept for two more hours. But when he got up that time he was in a great mood and ate dinner with us. The next morning after only two doses of medicine his arm looked almost completely healed. The transformation was unbelievable.

Now after several days of lining three bottles of augmentin up to dose them twice a day I am ready for this to officially be over.