The Mystery Ailment

Sunday night Audrey woke up complaining that her arm hurt. Monday night she woke up complaining that her arm hurt, and then a little while later, her hand. I discovered a bunch of red bumps on her palm that looked like tiny blister under the skin. We went to the doctor on Tuesday and he was not very concerned about the arm pain and told us the bumps were a virus similar to hand, foot, and mouth disease. He told us we could give her ibuprofen for the pain and as long as she didn't develop a fever, she would not be contagious after a couple days. He said it would spread and probably last a week or two. Tuesday night, whe woke up with arm pain again. Wednesday morning, we saw that the bumps had indeed spread to her arms. Wednesday afternoon after her nap, the bumps had spread up her arm and were no longer blisters under the skin, but raised blisters with liquid in them. She also complained more of arm pain and would not use her right arm. I took her in to the doctor again, but our regular doctor was out, so she saw a different one. This doctor was stumped and concentrated more on the arm pain, but found nothing wrong. She could move it OK and no matter how the doctor twisted it, Audrey didn't seem uncomfortable. She brought in another doctor to look at the bumps and they concluded that it's a virus like chicken pox. They said she would only really be contagious of people came in direct contact with the bumps, so she needs to wear long sleeves. In June. None of the three doctors seemed to be very sure of their diagnoses, and we go back on Friday for a follow-up, right before we're supposed to head for Minnesota for the weekend. It's frustrating to see her in pain and not know what's causing it. She is such a trooper, though. I'm very curious to see how this ends.

In other news, two funny things from Lydia:

I told her that this morning I found Charlie licking my deodorant. Lydia said that was gross and I agreed. Then she said, "Now you have to put it back in your armpit! Disgusting!" Apparently, she is more worried about my delicate armpits.

Tonight Lydia told me, "I think you were cuckoo when you were a little girl." I confessed to her that I think I'm still a little cuckoo. She looked at me very concerned and said, "Should I tell somebody?"

I'm Going to be Rich

Somebody get me on the phone with Hollywood because I have an idea for the next big game show. It will be one of those shows where you have to do an impossible task, but if you actually complete it, the audience goes wild and you win $1,000,000. Kind of like Minute to Win It or that crazy Japanese game show Most Extreme Elimination. The task? Put eye drops in Lydia's eyes.

Two weeks ago, Charlie came down with an obvious case of pinkeye. After a visit to the doctor, it was determined she also had an ear infection. So, off to Target we went to get her prescription. The doctor told us that if either of the other two showed signs of it, to just call and they would phone in a prescription for eye drops. So, last week on Tuesday, it became obvious Lydia and Jayson both had it. Lydia's doctor called in a prescription for her, and Jayson's called one in for him. Off to Target we went for two more prescriptions. I tried the old, "Oh, I have a $10 gift card coupon with a new prescription at home..." and the pharmacist nicely told me that I could bring it back with my receipt and they would make the adjustment. Foiled.

Lydia had to miss school on Tuesday, which was the end of the world. She cried, "My friends will ride the bus without me! What will they do at table time!??!" It was awful, but very much needed. I didn't want to be the mom who sent her highly contagious kid to school and contaminated the whole class.

By the end of the day on Tuesday, it was obvious Audrey was also getting pinkeye, so we used Lydia's drops on her. After dinner on Wednesday, Audrey was crying in pain and telling me her ear hurt. I gave her some Ibuprofen and called the doctor and got the last appointment of the day. The doctor told me she had an ear infection, so off to Target for our fourth prescription in about a week. This pharmacist was much nicer than the other one and told me that he would give me a coupon if I told him a good joke. Luckily, Audrey is practically a stand-up comedian with a cache of 1.5 jokes, and she busted out her best. ("Knock knock!" "Who's there?" "Boo!" "Boo who?" "STOP CRYING!" HAHAHAHAHA.) The next day, a student told me she saw me at Target, but didn't say hi because I was running down the aisle with the cart while Audrey yelled for me to go faster. Ha. Oops.

Luckily, the medications are working. It's pretty much a miracle, because I think only about 10% of the eye drops actually made it into Lydia's eye. We started by holding her down and forcing them in, but the screams and the looks of terror were too much. We let her close her eyes and then put them in the inside corner and then let her "blink" them in. It actually started working, but took about three drops in each eye to get enough in. Audrey did really well with them, opening her eyes wide and then laughing when the drops went in.

Now everybody is pretty much healed except for a lingering cough and a few more doses of amoxicillin. We also have $20 in Target gift cards for our trouble. Not quite the $1,000,000 I would win on my game show, but I'll take it.