Cue the Violins

We had every hope that Olivia would beat the cold she was fighting. We though if we gave her the usual ten days to let the cold run its course, she’d be fine. She’s done it in the past, fought off colds without a trip to the doctor. It tends to be a crap shoot. This cold? Sure, just give her body time and she’ll get over it.

Alas, this time we were so wrong. She coughed and sniffled all last week but I kept thinking that ten days was the typical run time of a cold and so we waited, and treated her symptoms and hoped for the best.

Then Friday night she cried for three hours. Her ear hurt. It hurt so bad, she moaned and cried.

That was it. With the onset of a new symptom, off we went to Urgent Care.

We got there a little after the office opened and still waited about a half hour to be seen. Once we were back there the nurse took our information, listened to O’s heart and then left us to wait another fifteen minutes or so for the doctor. I always mention that Olivia has 5p- syndrome at visits like this because I never know how it might change a doctor’s or nurse’s treatment of Olivia. I like them to have all vital medical information when treating my child. A lot of kids with 5p- have a lower immunity and their bodies have a harder time fighting germs.

The doctor came in and before even asking what was up with Olivia asked what I was putting on the sore that Olivia had on her upper lip. It had started as a scratch about five days before but had grown into about a dime-sized spot that looked like it had been rubbed raw.

I told her we’d been putting an antibiotic ointment on it.

She nodded and said, “That’s impetigo, I’ll write you a prescription for an ointment that will treat the strep infection.”

Yikes! I’d never seen impetigo before. I’d heard of it but had no idea what it really was. Yuck.
After diagnosing the impetigo, the doctor looked in O’s ears and declared a raging infection and without further ado, wrote out a prescription for amoxicillin along with the stuff for O’s lip.

And off we went to fill those prescriptions, my mommy-guilt raging loudly in my head. Wah, wah, wahhhh.

We should have taken her to the doctor much earlier in the week.

But, my logical side (there is a logical side to me, no matter how small it might be) argued gently, she hadn’t had a fever since Sunday, she was ‘just’ sniffling and coughing. She’d only just complained about the ear ache the night before.

You couldn’t have known!

But I should have, the guilty part raged. I her mom, I should have known how sick she was and I should have not let her suffer for five whole days.

I can’t go back though. I can only go forward and continue to try and figure out this kid as I go.

For what it’s worth, after three days on amoxicillin and the giant vat of ointment they gave us for the impetigo, she’s very much on the mend. And that ointment? It’s going to last for freaking ever, which means if she gets another nasty, seeping sore, we’ll be prepared to treat it before it gets all staphy.

Take that, Mommy-Guilt!