'Tis the season...to be SICK!

We were infected with sickness in our household over break. It feels like if it's not one thing it was something else. Terry is the healthy one of the 3 of us! Christmas morning I ended up getting up and beginning to feel light-headed and sick to my stomach. So I went back to bed and sent Terry and Oliva off for Christmas dinner at the Beck's. After I slept a couple hours I had begun to feel somewhat better and joined the family for the afternoon/evening. Christmas evening Olivia had hives begin to appear. They would show up thick in certain places for about 20 minutes and disappear and reappear somewhere else. These continued through the weekend but they didn't really seem to bother her except when they were on her neck. Olivia and I also had been working on congestion and that only worsened over the weekend with coughing, stuffy/runny nose, and being tired. I had a regular OB check-up with my doctor on Monday, Dec. 28 and took Olivia along to get looked at for her hives. It was determined that she ingested something that she's obviously allergic to but we couldn't pinpoint what that might be. We were just told to give her Zyrtec for 10 days. At the time of this appointment the doctor looked at her throat and said it was clear. On Tuesday, Dec. 29 my coughing had gotten much worse and I was put on an antibiotic. On Wednesday, Dec. 30 Olivia's coughing was HORRIBLE so she was put on a Z-pack. So, we spend New Year's Eve and day at home. Olivia was done with her antibiotic on Sunday, January 3 and still was not better and was up from 2:45 a.m. on that night. That made a long first day back to school on the 4th for me! I have trouble sleeping anyways, and 3 hours of sleep was definitely not sufficient for the day on Monday. On Monday, January 4 Olivia developed a rash (not sure where this came from but it wasn't hives). By January 5 I was feeling much better but Olivia now had liquid wax literally running out of her right ear. So...we went to the doctor AGAIN! Poor girl has "issues" like her mom. It obviously was determined she has an ear infection and she was put on a different antibiotic. Thankfully, she is not irritable, but still coughing A LOT, and is not running a temp. This is different from how she reacted to ear infections last winter. Hopefully, this antibiotic does the trick. It frustrating knowing that her tubes in her ears have come out after 6 months. We do not want to go through that again of having to have more put in. Please keep her in your prayers!

Update: January 7 Olivia started to show an allergic reaction to her antibiotic (Omincef). By bedtime it was pretty bad. Doctor's office was closed (of course) so I called the pharmacy. We stopped taking the medicine and he gave us the name of one more alternative medicine to try so I will be calling the doctor tomorrow morning right away to see what needs to be done. Olivia had even been on Omnicef last February and March with ear infections and didn't have an adverse reaction to the medication then. Frustrating!

January 9 we took Olivia back to the doctor for her HORRIBLE skin reaction to Omincef. She is now on some ear drops that she will get twice a day. Above are a few pictures of her poor "rash".

Another Update: Olivia needs to go in for an allergy test on January 22. She also will be going back to see an ENT on February 2. We are going to try a new ENT. Our doctor said she is looking at most likely getting tubes again.