Unphased

It's really the best word to describe Nora when it comes to dealing with her ear tubes surgery.

Girlfriend was a ROCKSTAR.

Our surgery arrival time was scheduled for 7:45 a.m., so we got up early this morning in order to be ready to leave the house by 7:15. Thankfully, the timing was pretty perfect for us, as Nora usually wakes up around 7:00. Since she couldn't eat or drink anything, it was nice to be able to just grab her out of bed, change her diaper, and go. If we had to hang around the house for a while, things would've gotten ugly without her milk and waffle (or oatmeal).

But Nora rolled with the punches from the get-go, riding silently the entire way to the surgery center, despite us derailing her usual morning routine. Shortly after arrival at the center, we were called back for preparation--weighing Nora, confirming her medical history, introductions with the anesthesiologist, and a greeting from her ENT. We kept Nora occupied with a movie on the iPad, and before we knew it, it was time for them to take her to the operating room. They whisked her away, which was awful (she screamed), but it was quick.

Fifteen minutes occupying ourselves in the waiting room, and the ENT came out to tell us that it was over and that she had done really well. He said that they had suctioned a lot of fluid from her not-even-infected-at-the-moment ears, which really made me feel like we had made the right decision. A couple more minutes and a nurse was leading us back to see our little girl.

When we got to her, she was crying, and clearly still out of it, but she reached for me and calmed down once she was in my arms. Surprisingly, she was not terribly lethargic--she had no interest in continuing to sleep on me or anything. So, again, we took out the iPad to help pass the time we had to wait to be discharged.

Twenty minutes later and we were told we could take her home. All in all, we were in and out in an hour and a half. Not too shabby.

By the time we got home, Nora was back to her normal self already. I was expecting a clingy, tired, extra snuggly baby to lie around with all day (I was actually looking forward to it), but instead we found ourselves chasing after Little Miss Busy all day long (exhausting, ha). She even introduced us to some new dance moves:
It was like nothing had ever happened to her. We were so happy to see her bounce back so quickly (even if I was hoping for extra snuggles).

Nora went down at her normal nap time and slept her normal length of time. The only time I really noticed a difference was tonight, when I put her down to bed. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep on me (which is not the norm). I might've held her a lot longer than usual. You know, to get that snuggle time.

I'm just so happy to have this behind us. The lead-up to it has been long, and stressful. Earlier this week, we were in the ENT's office on both Tuesday and Wednesday--once for a hearing test (they said there was no permanent hearing loss) and then for the pre-op appointment. And obviously, before that, there were many ear infections and trips to the pediatrician.

Here's hoping that this procedure helps Nora and turns out to be a wonderful solution for her.

And maybe now I can finally stop worrying.

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An ENT Experience

Given that I've posted several times about our trials and tribulations with Nora's frequent and persistent ear infections, I would be remiss if I didn't share the latest developments.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago when we were in every-day-antibiotic-injection hell, we were finally referred to an ENT specialist. The appointment with him was last week, and although it was a fairly brief appointment, it was obviously an important one.

At the appointment, we gave a history of Nora's problems with her ear infections, and answered a bunch of questions from the doctor (i.e. when was her first ear infection, is there secondhand smoke in the home, what are her typical symptoms, do we have any reason to believe she has hearing loss, etc.). After the "interview" portion, the doctor took a look in Nora's ears. She was NOT pleased; in fact, we had to hold her down and fight her while she screamed bloody murder. Awful. And rare for her, as she usually lets the pediatricians at our practice check her out without issue.

Despite the kicking and screaming, he was able to get a look at both ears and told us that while they weren't currently infected (hooray!), they weren't healthy ears. There was fluid visible in both ears, and he said that based on what they looked like, the problems there could turn into an ear infection at any time. He then told us that based on her history and the current exam, she met all criteria for tubes. He gave us his spiel about the anatomy of the ear that causes infections, the tubes, the procedure, and the risks--for both surgery AND continuing what we've been doing. Unfortunately, there are risks associated with both. Obviously, there is a slight chance of complications with the tubes, but there is also risk to continuing to allow her to get frequent ear infections and repeatedly dosing her with antibiotics.

At the end, I asked him if there was any chance that Nora could have hearing loss due to the infections. This has been one of my many concerns. He looked right at me and said, "She does have hearing loss." I was kind of surprised at his certainty, given that he hadn't done a hearing test, so I said, "Really?" And he explained that with the amount of fluid she had in her ears, it causes some hearing loss. He compared it to holding your hands over your ears; you can still HEAR, but not as clearly as you should be able to.

That was pretty much the kicker for us. We decided to go ahead and schedule surgery.

Yesterday, they called me to schedule her pre-op appointments and surgery. We have two pre-op appointments early next week, then her surgery is on Friday 2/17. I had a pit in my stomach the entire time I was talking to the scheduler. This situation just sucks. As far as we know, Nora doesn't have an ear infection right now, which makes it a little harder--as bad as it sounds, I think it would be easier on us if she were to develop another ear infection between now and surgery day, because it would assure us that we're making the right decision!

At the end of the day, we do still believe it to be the right decision, but it's a lot harder to send a "healthy" kid into the operating room than a currently sick one, you know?

Anyway, we'll still be able to do some more information gathering during her pre-op appointments that will hopefully help to ease our minds. One of the appointments is actually for a formal hearing test with an audiologist. Apparently the ENT ordered it for Nora to get a better feel for the degree of her hearing loss--and whether it is temporary (we have every reason to believe it is) or permanent.

It has not been an easy decision for us. It has also not been an easy few months, that's for sure. I am going to be a nervous wreck until we can officially call this a success and put it all behind us. Until then, I will live with a ball of nerves in my belly.

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Double Trouble

We went into the pediatrician's office this morning for Nora's ear "recheck" appointment from her latest ear infection diagnosis two weeks ago. I had an inkling that things were not going to go well.

Sadly, we've gotten pretty good at diagnosing Nora's ear infections on our own, just by observing her behavior and her general demeanor. She's usually not miserable, but she's just not herself. A little moody. With a short fuse. Occasional rubbing of the ears. Interrupted sleep.

That last one has always been a tell-tale sign. On Saturday night, she was up--wide awake--for three hours in the middle of the night. Fun times, I tell you.

Anyway, the doctor took a look at one ear and sighed, "That one is a mess." And then she looked in the other one, "That one's not good either."

Let's back up here. December 22: Left ear. January 9: Right ear. January 23: Both ears. The last two were diagnosed at appointments that were supposed to be "rechecks"--in other words, appointments to confirm that infections had cleared. Our poor girl has not been ear infection free since well before Christmas.

The kicker this time was that she had been on Omnicef, which is considered a broad spectrum (a.k.a. strong) antibiotic--because amoxicillin hadn't been doing the job. Now, it appears Omnicef isn't working, either. So, the doctor opted to give Nora injectable antibiotics.

INJECTABLE. Antibiotics.

They're the big guns, y'all. Not cool.

We have to go back tomorrow to have her ears reevaluated, because apparently, these antibiotics are so good that we should see marked improvement in just 24 hours. At that point, the doctor will decide if she needs another round. Rinse and repeat for Wednesday. Poor little Nora is going to be traumatized, I fear. Needless to say, she was not thrilled with the two needles that were stuck into her chubby little thighs this morning.

We also walked out with an ENT referral. We're at the end of our rope with this stuff. We want our baby to get better. We've looked into chiropractors, and it is just not a feasible solution for us right now. We've considered the dairy sensitivity, and will be talking to our doctors about that a bit more, but overall, we're just happy to have the appointment with the ENT (next week) to get a formal evaluation of her condition, and go from there. This isn't the way we wanted this to turn out, but we just want to put an end to this endless sea of ear infections, trips to the doctor, and antibiotics.

Baby steps.

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Just breathe.

When Nora was around 6-7 months old, she had a bad cold with some wheezing and was diagnosed with "probable RSV." Aside from some loud breathing and a hacking cough, it never seemed to be much of a big deal. But little did we know at the time what havoc that stupid RSV would wreak on us for months and months to come.

As you might be able to tell by now, it's been a rough week, what with starting out with another ear infection and all.

What started out as a runny nose and a sporadic cough with her ear infection on Monday has slowly and surely turned into a full-blown, nasty cold with constant runny nose, a really painful-sounding cough, and... some loud wheezing.

I had thoughts that Nora might be developing bronchitis or something, but figured that the antibiotic she's on for her ear infection would also wipe out anything else that could actually be treated. Still, I called the doctor's office this afternoon to talk to a nurse, just to be safe. She put me on hold to grab Nora's chart, and as soon as she came back, she said that given Nora's history with RSV/bronchiolitis, they wanted to see her.

We got the last appointment of the day--4:30--so you can imagine that by that hour, the doctor was running behind. Very behind. So we waited a good half hour before we were even seen by a doctor--which was a med student first, then the actual pediatrician. Because the pediatrician was teaching the med student, she started making observations aloud as soon as she entered the room. Nora was in nothing but her diaper, so she was able to conclude right away--without even listening--that Nora was wheezing and working harder than normal to breathe. She noted that she could see retractions in her belly and ribs, which--as you might suspect--are not a good thing.

Michael and I went from feeling like we'd probably walk out of there with nothing but a "she has a bad cold" diagnosis to being talked to about how, if it gets any worse, Nora is probably going to end up in the hospital. The doctor didn't seem to think it will actually come to that, but she was worried enough to make us try an albuterol breathing treatment right there in the office. I had done this once before with Nora after her initial diagnosis of RSV in the spring, and it sucked, but nothing could have prepared me for the alligator wrestling that this involved today.

Nora hated it. Just hated it. Have you ever tried to hold a mask up to a 16-month-old's face while air is blasting out of it? We had to pin her arms down, legs down, and squeeze her against me to just TRY to get this thing up near her face. We tried to read to her, we sang songs, but she screamed bloody murder the entire time. She actually bit the mask repeatedly. And, if you haven't had the pleasure of doing this, please note that the treatments last TEN MINUTES, which might as well have been ten years for how slowly time passed in those moments.

Unfortunately, when all was said and done, it didn't even seem to help--which means that Nora's bronchiolitis (which is swelling of the lung's passageways, by the way) is most likely caused by a virus, not underlying asthma. That's actually great news, so don't think I'm complaining about that.

Even so, we walked out of there with three prescriptions--for an albuterol inhaler + a spacer (child-size mask) for breathing treatments + steroids. All to help try to open up the tiny passageways in her lungs. The sad part is that, because she doesn't appear to have asthmatic tendencies, these things probably won't help at all--but given the severity of her wheezing, the doctor wanted us to utilize every available tool that could even possibly work.

We were given strict instructions to call the doctor's office every day for the next five days to provide an update. In the end, we were at the doctor's office for more than an hour and a half. Wow.

The good news is that our little wheezer still seems to be in pretty great spirits. She was thrilled with the Blue's Clues sticker she got to play with on the entire ride home from the pediatrician's office. She's been tired (sleep isn't very restful when you're coughing all night) and glassy-eyed, but she's smiling and laughing and running like usual. Due to the every-four-hours breathing treatments, she still gets to stay home with us tomorrow, but at least we don't have a depressed little sicky on our hands.

I, on the other hand, am traumatized and counting down the days until spring.

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I'm so very sick

...of my baby getting ear infections.

I didn't post about it amidst the hustle and bustle of Christmas, but a few days prior to the holiday, Nora was diagnosed with another ear infection. We suspected she might have one, but weren't positive. I called the pediatrician's office and debated aloud on the phone for several minutes before she convinced me that yes, it could be an ear infection, and no, we wouldn't be wasting their time if it turned out to be nothing.

So, on my last day of work prior to a 5-day Christmas weekend, I left the office an hour early to run Nora to the totally empty pediatrician's office for their last appointment of the day. And it was confirmed: Nora had an ear infection for Christmas, for the second year in a row.

Ten days of antibiotics later, she was seemingly fine. Unfortunately, that didn't last long.

We had a pediatrician's appointment scheduled for today, for a recheck of the ear--to make sure the Christmas ear infection had cleared up properly. But yesterday, we began to notice our girl feeling a bit under the weather again. A little more quiet than usual. A little more clingy. Constantly rubbing her right ear. Slightly feverish. The tell-tale sign came when I put her to bed at 7:00 p.m., and she woke up screaming at 8:30. Under normal circumstances, that's just not how Nora rolls.

So the appointment to recheck her left ear turned into a diagnosis of infection in her right ear. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Our pediatrician mentioned the possibility of getting tubes put in her ears back in October. At the time, we weren't feeling ready to make that jump, which was fine, since the doctor said she would give Nora a pass for one more ear infection between then and March--more than that, and she'd want to talk tubes. Well, guess what? She's now had two, and we're only in January.

For those who are curious, her history looks like this:

• Baby's 1st ear infection - December 27, 2010 - treated with amoxicillin
• Ear infection - April 2011 - treated with amoxicillin
• Ear infection - September 2011 - surprise diagnosis at well baby appt - left untreated
• Ear infection - Oct. 10, 2011 - treated with amoxicillin
• Double ear infection - Oct. 26, 2011 - unsure if it's same infection as 10/10 that never went away, or a new one - treated with omnicef
• Ear infection (left ear) - Dec. 22, 2011 - treated with amoxicillin
• Ear infection (right ear) - Jan. 9, 2012 - treating with omnicef
• Note: I'm about 98% sure there was another surprise diagnosis somewhere in there that we left untreated, but I can't remember exactly when that was. Our philosophy (with our doctor's blessing) has always been that if it isn't bothering her/she has no symptoms, we can leave it to clear up on its own.
  

In my mind, the number from December through October was not that big of a deal, which is why I was surprised when our pediatrician mentioned tubes then. But looking at December through October, and now October through today? Maybe I'm an overprotective mama bear, but that looks like an awful lot of ear infections.

We tried to talk to the pediatrician today about tubes, but she wasn't Nora's doctor--our doc is out for a few weeks on some kind of medical leave, and won't be back for another two weeks. This doc today said she likes to be very conservative about tubes, and personally, wouldn't recommend them at this time. But in our minds, she doesn't know Nora. And while I respect her as a member of the medical community, I would feel better about it if we heard it from our pediatrician.

We now have 10 days of an antibiotic, and then we go for a recheck again in 14 days--thankfully, our pediatrician is supposed to be back in the office that week, so we scheduled the appointment with her in the hopes that she'll actually be back and up for seeing patients.

In the meantime, we are just torn. We want the tubes. We don't want the tubes. Aside from the pain and discomfort the infections cause Nora, our two biggest concerns are: 1) We don't like to have her on antibiotics so often, and 2) We're worried she could potentially have some mild hearing loss from having fluid in her ears so frequently, which could be affecting her language development. At this point, I think what we really want the most is just a hearing test. We just need the referral to the ENT to get a consult and figure out exactly what we're dealing with. If there's no hearing loss? I think we'll be comfortable waiting a while longer to see if she'll grow out of it. If there is hearing loss? I think our baby is getting tubes.

Blah-biddy blah blah. I'm honestly just as tired of talking about it as I am of seeing my little one suffering. As always, we do enjoy the extra snuggle time. Last night, we couldn't get her back to sleep when she woke up at 8:30, so we brought her into our bed with the iPad and let her watch a good chunk of Toy Story 3 while lying there with us. Just precious.

Tonight, we have antibiotics that are hopefully doing their thing, and a baby who is (at least for now) sleeping peacefully in her crib, so we can at least give it the two weeks to see what the recheck brings. But I do find myself wondering if we're just delaying what is inevitable. Only time will tell.

Annnndd... I just heard her over the monitor. My poor baby. We made it until 9:15 tonight. *sigh* Perhaps we will watch Tangled on the iPad tonight. :) Goodnight!

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Making the Cut

Nora's teeth, that is. But let's back up a second.

Nora had her 15-month well baby doctor's appointment today.

Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with another ear infection. We've chosen not to treat it at this time, since she is still sleeping well and is not completely miserable (though she has her moments). But we do have the prescription just in case we need it.

Aside from that, it was a good visit. Nora is now 21 lbs., jumping up into the 20th percentile for weight (she's always been hanging around 5th percentile, so this was a surprise)! Still petite, but not quite as petite right now. She's 29 inches (also 20th percentile), and her head is something like 47 (or 49?) centimeters, which is the 77th percentile. Her daycare provider said that's what makes her so cute--that her head is slightly bigger than the rest of her body. Haha!

We talked language development and walking and attitude. All deemed normal, of course. :) Little Miss got four vaccinations, which is always fun. Not.

Oh, and the pediatrician confirmed that Nora is cutting at least EIGHT teeth right now, including four molars. No wonder the kid is a little irritable. What's funny now is that at any given moment, we don't know what's bothering her. Is she pitching a fit because her teeth hurt? Is her ear bothering her? Or is she just being a toddler with 'tude? I guess we will never know. We're trying to err on the side of caution--giving her the benefit of the doubt--and being a bit more sympathetic than we would typically be to her outbursts.

Tonight, she pitched an absolute fit once we were home from daycare. She would.not.let.me.put.her.down. Let's be real: I love holding her, but I would try to put her down just to play with her and she did not want to have anything to do with the floor. I tried to put her in her high chair to eat and she flipped out, so I marched her upstairs to put her in the bath and get her ready for bed. She threw a big dramatic tantrum during the bath (which, as a result, only lasted about two minutes--long enough for me to wash her hair and wipe her down), and once she was out and dressed in jammies, she was fine. In fact, I brought her back downstairs and she proceeded to eat one of the largest dinners she has ever had. She scarfed down everything we put in front of her.

One minute she's a monster. The next she's an angel. Such is life with a teething, ear-achy, moody toddler.

I try not to overuse painkillers/fever reducers, but Nora has had at least one dose every day for over a week now, thanks to her mysterious illness and these dang teeth. I've also been using Orajel every night before she goes to bed, and busting out her teething necklace. (I owe you guys a review on that thing. Watch for it, hopefully soon!) We've tried offering her the frozen/refrigerated teething things before, but she never wants anything to do with them. I was given a bottle of teething drops made by Gentle Naturals, but haven't used them yet.

Do you have any tips and tricks to help soothe a teething toddler?

I have to say, as much discomfort as she's probably in right now, I'm glad we're dealing with a bunch coming in all at once--let's get this over with! Better a shorter time with more discomfort than a longer, drawn-out period of teething with a little less discomfort. Am I right, or am I right? :)

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Working for the Weekend

At the end of this past work week, Michael and I pretty much collapsed. It was a rough one.

Unfortunately, after I posted on Tuesday about Nora's fever, she didn't get better. In fact, just hours later, she was way worse.

Michael and I woke up to Nora crying at around 12:45 a.m. Given that she had been sick, I didn't wait long before going in to her. When I took her out of her crib, I could tell right away that she was burning up.

I had given her ibuprofen before she went to bed at 7:00 p.m., so I grabbed the Tylenol (we were alternating drugs, especially when enough time hadn't passed since the last ibuprofen dose to be able to give her another one) and the thermometer and took her to the rocking chair in her room. Poor baby had her eyes closed the whole time, but was whimpering and just generally uncomfortable.

Beep! Thermometer registered and it was... 105 degrees.

SCARY.

I confirmed the ear thermometer reading with an underarm temp, and after giving her Tylenol and rocking her for a few minutes in the chair, Michael and I agreed that we'd bring her into bed with us. Honestly, we were too afraid to leave her in her crib by herself when her fever was that high--even if she would've let us.

To make a long night short, Michael and I were up until 4:00 a.m. waiting for her fever to break. The Tylenol dose I gave her only seemed to lower her temperature by a degree--to 104--which was not very comforting. Nora did her best to sleep on us, but her high fever was causing a lot of discomfort, which caused her to squirm around a lot and wake up frequently, whining and crying. As worried parents, we were just too wound up to fall asleep during all of this. At around 3:00 a.m., I decided to give her another dose of ibuprofen (it had then been eight hours since the last ibuprofen dose, but only about two hours since the Tylenol dose), and thankfully, within the hour, her fever finally dropped down to 102 degrees and Nora showed noticeable improvement. Her breathing--which had been rapid and loud when her fever was really high--slowed and quieted, and we decided that she would probably sleep best in her own bed. We were right, as she went back into her crib easily, and we were able to get a few hours of shut-eye ourselves.

So, Wednesday was fun. (I hope you sense the sarcasm.) We had been up the majority of the night, and clearly, Nora was not going back to daycare, so we had to figure out how we were going to juggle our work at work and taking care of our precious girl at home.

And although her fever never reached the 104-105 degree range again, Nora continued to run a fever of 101-103 on Wednesday and Thursday, buying her the rest of the week at home with us.

Juggle, juggle, juggle.

I will say that I have never been so thankful for the flexibility of my employer. As luck would have it, my work load was pretty heavy this week, so I was unable to just take sick time and relax about it all. For Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Michael and I shared the work-at-home parent duties, splitting the days into morning and afternoon "shifts." One of us would go to work in the morning, the other would stay home, and then we'd switch in the afternoon. Our managers and coworkers were incredibly flexible and understanding about it, which made a stressful situation a little less stressful.

Oh, I also have to say: Parents who actually work at home while simultaneously keeping their kids at home with them? And do this on a regular, everyday basis? I HAVE NO IDEA HOW YOU DO IT.

On the days that Nora was feeling especially awful, she slept a lot, which allowed us to get work done, even when we were home with her. But when she was awake, we took special care to have our focus be on her, making up for the time later--usually after she was in bed at night, which made for long days for us!

On Friday, Nora was feeling better, but was still SUPER clingy and whiny. I was home in the morning, but had a deadline I had to meet, so I was trying to finish up a few things and Nora just would NOT let me put her down. I ended up propping her half on/half off my lap on the couch, turning on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and working on my laptop on the other side of me. Did it work? Sure. But I also felt like a terrible mother.

So it all felt like a double-edged sword. If I was trying to WORK from home in order to meet my deadlines at work, I felt badly if I was instead taking time out for Nora. And if I was turning my attention to my work instead of Nora, I felt terribly that I was ignoring my sick baby.

Working parenthood sucks sometimes. That's really all there is to it.

On the bright side of things, I think both Michael and I really did enjoy and take advantage of our extra time with our sweetheart this week. She was so clingy/snuggly, and she just wanted US. And no matter how hard it is to see your kid sick, there is something really special about being the only ones who can make her feel better.

I'm glad she's finally on the mend, but I'll really miss her when we return to our normal schedule on Monday.

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Fever Pitch

We've had a rough week around these parts. As I mentioned yesterday, Nora was cranky (due to teething) for the better part of last week. We had a bit of a reprieve over the weekend, but noticed that her appetite was decreasing. Otherwise, she seemed fine, so we attributed that to teething, too.

But when I picked up Nora from daycare yesterday, she just seemed... off. Sort of out of it. Lethargic. And she felt hot. Her daycare provider said that she had been fine all day, but had seemed kind of quiet since she had woken from her afternoon nap. She hadn't noticed the fever, either, so it was probably pretty new. Poor kid was just not herself, but relaxed quietly on the way home.

I took her temperature as soon as we got in, and it was already 103 degrees, which happened to be her highest ever. Gave her ibuprofen and she perked up as the fever dropped to between 101-102. We put her to bed as normal.

I went in to check on her at one point during the evening and it was obvious she was still hot. But since she was sleeping peacefully and I had given her ibuprofen a few hours before, I let her be. But at 11:00, she woke up screaming, and when I went in, the child was simply burning up. Took her temp again, and it was up to 104 degrees. We felt awful for her. I gave her acetaminophen, put her back to bed, and we went to bed ourselves. With the exception of a brief stint at 5:00 a.m., she slept through the rest of the night.

Needless to say, I was home with a sick baby today. Her fever was still 102 degrees upon waking up this morning, at which time I gave more ibuprofen and then... well, fever-wise, she was OK. She played with me for a while, then seemed tired, so I put her down for a morning nap. I thought she'd probably give me a long one since she needed the sleep. But 45 minutes later, she was up again. And she.was.miserable.

The temper tantrums at every little thing that I described in this post? Imagine that kind of crying and screaming for AN HOUR, nonstop. She was NOT happy, regardless of what I did. Except this time I felt terrible about it because I knew she was not feeling well. I gave her more acetaminophen. I rubbed Orajel on her gums. I offered her food. I offered her milk. I turned on a movie. I tried to play. I tried just holding her. She was not having any of it. I very nearly ended up crying with her--several times. I just felt so helpless.

But after an hour of constant screaming, I sort of threw in the towel. Given her not-nearly-long-enough nap, I figured she was still exhausted, and took her back upstairs and put her in her crib. I had to endure 10 more minutes of the miserable crying, but then... silence. She passed out, and slept 2+ hours, at which point I had to wake her up to take her to her doctor's appointment.

The recap of the doctor's visit? No ear infection (which was the primary reason we went in). No real signs of anything, except for a runny nose. They said she likely just has some kind of virus. Nothing we can do but try to keep her fever down and push fluids on her.

She was in a great mood when we got home from the doctor, and played with me for quite a while. But by the time Michael got home from work, she was starting to crash again. And sure enough, her temperature just so happened to be creeping up at the same time. Her fever spiked back up to 102 degrees and I gave her ibuprofen AGAIN. She's in bed sleeping now, but now we're faced with what to do about tomorrow. Do we keep her home again? We probably should, since she's had another fever. But her temperature was fine ALL DAY. And the doctor said she could have a fever for up to five days with a virus. *sigh*

I would love to continue to stay home with her, but my sick time is limited (end of the year--I'm running out!) and my work load is an issue. Michael can work from home, too, but it's hard to work from home unless she's napping.

Ah, the dilemmas of two full-time working parents.

In the end, all I want is for my girl to feel better. :(

On an unrelated note, check her out as she played with her new Little People Nativity Set earlier tonight. It's adorable, and she loves how it lights up and plays "Away in the Manger."

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Reconsidered

When we first decided to purchase life insurance, I never imagined that I'd still be talking about it nearly THREE MONTHS later. But alas, it looks like our fight is finally coming to an end.

If you'll remember... First, I complained about the cost of it. Even when we were paying "normal" rates.

Then, they told me that my urinalysis showed elevated levels of protein, and made me question whether I had symptomless, hidden kidney disease. I visited my doctor, and had to bring home the jug for 24 hours.

Unfortunately, that test came back with elevated (although it was ever.so.slight) too, so my doctor referred me to a nephrologist (kidney specialist) to rule out everything bad--basically, just so I could contest the ruling of the insurance company.

I never updated you after that, but I went and saw the nephrologist. He took a health history, reviewed my lab results, and essentially laughed. He said that the levels of protein in my urinalysis were "insignificant," said "You absolutely do not have proteinuria," and told me that he believed the insurance company's initial lab results to be erroneous. He deemed me perfectly healthy, with no signs of kidney disease, and promised a letter to explain all of this. He also told me that he'd talk to any physician at the insurance company, if necessary.

I was relieved, and went on my merry way. The next week, I was able to get a copy of the letter from the nephrologist, and I forwarded it to my insurance company right away.

And then I waited again.
And waited.

And waited.

Then, my phone rang yesterday and it was my insurance agent. He said that he had good news for me: The underwriters agreed to adjust my classification, and subsequently, my rate. Not only was I not considered "sub-standard" anymore, but I had been promoted to *SUPER PREFERRED.* In other words, I went from being given the highest rate possible to being given the lowest rate possible.

TAKE THAT, YOU INSURANCE BITCHES.

I might've done a little victory dance in my desk chair.

Our initial quote was at the "preferred" rate, which was about $25/month for me. When they decided I was supposedly at high risk for kidney disease, diabetes, or connective tissue disorders, they deemed me "sub-standard," and jacked my rate up to $55/month. Now? $17/month.

It just goes to show what a racket this whole life insurance business is. Is it totally necessary? Yes. But are they assholes? Yes. Thankfully, I had supportive physicians who were willing to work with me to fight the insurance company and get the rate I deserved. So let this be a lesson to all of you: FIGHT THEM!

And now I shall step off of my soap box and go to bed.

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Nephrologist

Do you know what a nephrologist is? Up until very recently, I didn't really. It's not the type of doctor you hear about very often.

Pediatrician?
Oncologist?
Orthopedist?
Podiatrist?
Cardiologist?

Sure. But a nephrologist?

It's a kidney specialist. And I've won myself an appointment with one.

Despite hoping for the contrary, my 24-hour urinalysis showed that protein was still present. I guess the "normal" levels range from 0-30, and mine was 30.4. When the physician's assistant told me this on the phone, all I could think was, "Are you kidding me?" I'm a measly 0.4--that's ZERO.POINT.FOUR--outside of the normal range. So, if you ask me, I don't think I have much to worry about. But given that it is over the normal limit, and that the whole point of this business it to be able to fight the life insurance company over my premium, my doctor decided to refer me to the specialist to get checked out.

Basically, her thinking is that if the nephrologist can examine me, run his tests, and deem me totally fine, he can write a letter to the insurance company certifying that I'm healthy. It's our hope that, if the nephrologist can confirm that the protein means nothing in my case, the insurance company will agree to rate me like the normal, healthy 29-year-old that we believe I am. We'll see.

At my age and with my health history, I certainly never thought that getting decent rates on life insurance would be this difficult. I'm still laughing about the fact that before my lab results came back, I was complaining about the standard rates. The sub-standard rates are much, much more worthy of complaining over.

In the meantime, we're still working on shopping around with different life insurance companies. We had another one come over the weekend to do the exam, and it kind of sucked because when I was filling out all of the forms, I had to include the proteinuria finding in my health history. It asked questions like, "Have you ever seen a doctor for or been diagnosed with..." and filled in the blank with a laundry list of conditions. Unfortunately, protein in the urine was one of them, and I had to answer honestly. So, even though my doctor seems to think this finding is no big deal, it has certainly already been a game-changer for me! Even if it's just in the way I need to fill out health history forms, you know?

To my surprise, the nephrologist's office worked magic to "get [me] in soon" (which kinda-sorta worried me, to be honest), so at least I don't have to wait long. My appointment is on Friday.

Despite the nature of all of this, and the inconvenience it's been so far, I'm choosing to be optimistic about the whole thing right now. I have my fingers crossed that everything will work out in the end.

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All Ears. Again.

My little one is under the weather.

On Monday night, Nora woke up at 2:00 a.m. and was up for two hours--something that is very unusual for her. She didn't seem sick at all, so we chalked it up to possible teething and went on with our day as normal (albeit a little extra tired).

But when I picked her up from daycare yesterday, she seemed a little out of it. She looked tired. Her eyes had that glazed-over, "sick look." Our daycare provider said that she seemed quiet and not as active as usual. I thought she felt a little warm. Still, I took her home and Michael and I plopped her in her high chair to give her some dinner.

For the past week or so, Nora has been a rockstar when it comes to eating. It must've been the fact that I blogged about her food habits; she wanted to prove me wrong! She suddenly took to eating everything we put in front of her, so we've taken advantage by offering her a huge variety of new foods in the hopes that when she goes through another "picky stage," we'll have a bigger arsenal of familiar foods to pull from.

So anyway, we got her home last night and tried to feed her and... she wouldn't eat anything. We knew something was up right away, since the things we were trying to serve her were some of her favorites. Macaroni and cheese! She wouldn't touch it. We ended up getting her to eat a little bit of a dinner roll, but that was it. We called it quits on dinner, and I took her upstairs to get her ready for bed, even though it was early.

I discovered she did have a fever--101.6 by her ear thermometer. Not crazy high or anything, but a fever nonetheless. I gave her a bath, and she proceeded to freak me out a little bit by having chills when I was getting her pajamas on. Poor kid.

She promptly passed out, and we prepared ourselves to have another bad night. To our surprise, she slept quite well. We heard a couple of coughing fits throughout the night, and a few short little cries, but she always settled right back down.

This morning, she still looked terrible, and she once again had a 101+ degree fever, so we made her a doctor's appointment.

It turns out the poor kid has a double ear infection. AGAIN. Or, still. We're not sure whether it's a new infection, or if the one she had (diagnosed on 10/10) just never went away, even after a 10-day course of antibiotics. We stopped by the pharmacy to get her a new, stronger antibiotic, and I took her home and put her down for a nap. Michael came home from work to take the afternoon shift so I could go into work to attend meetings and get some things done. (Hooray, full-time working parents!)

THE KID TOOK A 4-HOUR NAP. If that right there is not a sign of her illness, I don't know what is.

By the time I got home, she was still looking pretty sick, but she was in good spirits.

Another fever tonight, so I don't know what to do about daycare tomorrow. Our provider doesn't really have any set rules, just expects everyone to use their best judgement. Ear infections aren't contagious, but she has the start of a cold now, too. Today, her pediatrician said she didn't think it was a good idea for her to return to daycare while she has the fever, so... I don't know. *sigh*

The biggest development in all of this is that our pediatrician started talking TUBES. Nora has had a few ear infections, but I guess I didn't realize that it was anything abnormal until today. By our count, she's had 3-4 that we've treated since last Christmas, when she got her first one at three months old. Plus, there was an additional one that we detected at her 12-month well-baby appointment that we decided not to treat because she was showing absolutely no symptoms of it, and it didn't seem to be bothering her.

The pediatrician essentially said that if she can get away with having just one more ear infection between now and March, we'd be good. However, if she gets two within that timeframe, she wants to order the surgery to have tubes placed in her ears.

Blahhhhh. Not what I wanted to hear. I know it's a minor, common, outpatient procedure that takes like five minutes, but no one wants to put their baby under anesthesia, you know? Anyway, I'm not going to really spend time worrying about it until its actually upon us, but honestly, based on her history, I just don't see us getting to March with only one more ear infection.

I'm curious... Does your child have tubes in his/her ears? How old was he/she when they were inserted? What was the rationale for the decision? How many ear infections had he/she been diagnosed with before the tubes? Did the tubes prevent any further ear infections? Were they/will they be removed at a certain age? 

Even though tubes are just a possibility at this point, we do need to think ahead a bit because we are approaching open enrollment for health insurance with our employers. Right now, we have Michael and Nora on a high-deductible insurance plan through his job, and me on my own separate plan, as that was the most cost-effective solution for us. With Michael and Nora's plan, we've been taking the extra money that we would be spending on premiums and putting it in a health savings account. We have a nice chunk of money in there after only 10 months of paying into it, but we're not sure it's enough to cover the surgery, since we still have a deductible/co-insurance we'd have to pay.

So, that begs the question... if we think it's a good possibility that she'll need this surgery, should we consider switching to a traditional health plan for 2012? The premiums are much higher, but the surgery would likely be fully covered. We have to wait to get the 2012 insurance offerings from our employers, then try to get an estimate for what the surgery would cost, and go from there. It's definitely hard to figure out life insurance, but health insurance is a beast, too!

In the meantime, here's hoping Miss Nora gets back to her old self soon... and that maybe, just maybe, her vulnerability for ear infections will disappear! (See that there? That's optimism!)

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The Jug

As it turned out, it was pretty easy for a lot of you to figure out the object in the mystery photo. It seems that far more of you actually have experience with this than I thought!

If you guessed that it was a 24-hour urine collection container, give yourself a pat on the back.

Oh, and before I go any further, I feel the need to clarify: NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT AGAIN. That's how rumors get started, y'all. Sheesh. ;)

With all of that said, let's get back to the pee container and why I have one. The truth is: You haven't lived until you've collected 24 hours worth of pee in a jug. I'm just sayin'.

In all seriousness, this is related to life insurance. I posted a few weeks ago about my beef with life insurance. That was when I was fairly certain that life was all hunky-dory and I knew only that I was a perfectly healthy 29-year-old woman who was bound to be granted the "preferred" status with lower premiums. And I'll have you know that the hesitation I expressed in that post about paying for life insurance was actually based on those preferred, lower premiums.

I was so cute back then. In all of my freaking out over $25/month. Ha. Hahaha. Bwahahahahaha.

Imagine my shock when, yesterday morning, I talked to our insurance agent, who informed me that I had been approved for life insurance, but--and this was a big BUT--there was a problem with my lab work. The underwriters had awarded me a status of sub-standard.

Not "super preferred" (they probably only hand that out to robots).
Not "preferred" (like my healthy husband).
Not "standard" (you know, like maybe you have a couple of health issues).

SUB-STANDARD. Just one step above being rejected for life insurance altogether. That classification comes with a $55/month price tag. And the kicker? He couldn't tell me why.

COMMENCE FREAK-OUT BECAUSE SURELY THERE IS SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG WITH ME, AND YOU WANT ME TO PAY HOW MUCH??

Understandably, my insurance agent was not privy to my lab results/medical history/records (thank goodness!), but he was telling me about how I'd have to wait until the (sealed) records came in the mail for him, and then he'd have to put them in the mail for me. Come on, what are we talking about there, a week? NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Instead, I insisted on getting the number for the underwriter so I could call and speak to her directly. Which I did. And she informed me that my urinalysis results came back showing that I had elevated levels of protein in my urine. And went on to say (in a perfectly chipper voice, I might add) that elevated protein in urine is indicative of kidney failure, diabetes, hypertension, and connective tissue disorders. Because I wasn't freaking out enough already.

I hung up the phone and immediately called my doctor's office to get in for an appointment to see them. I had the insurance company fax me the complete lab results, and took them with me. After taking one look at the numbers, she said to me, "Well, your kidney function is beautiful. And you're not a diabetic." (And, let me also note that the stupid life insurance exam requires a blood pressure reading, which was 108/68, so I most certainly DO NOT HAVE HYPERTENSION, either.) She went on to explain that life insurance companies are going to do everything they can to knock you down into paying their higher premiums--which makes perfect sense, of course, but is still ridiculous to me. She suspects that my elevated protein level was just an anomaly, caused by something innocuous, but to be safe and help dispel the beliefs of the insurance company, she ordered a 24-hour collection, since it's the most accurate way to measure protein levels in urine.

Aren't you happy you stopped over to my blog today? You can't say I'm not educational. :)

The good news is that the doctor is optimistic that I'm fine, and said that if the results come back normal, she will send a nasty note to the insurance company telling them their results are crap and to request that they reconsider my classification in light of the more accurate test and normal results.

In the meantime, we have another insurance company sending a nurse over to do exams on Saturday morning--I have my fingers crossed that this one will prove to be less eventful and that I'll get the classification that (I'm pretty sure) I deserve from the get-go. There are lots of reasons for random protein in urine, so hopefully whatever caused mine in the first place has come to pass, and I'll check out OK this time.

Please excuse me while I go pee in a jug jump through hoops for life insurance.

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