An extremely difficult day. *Update.

Mercedes is sick. Again. I tracked the pattern.

1st round - 2.19.10.

2nd round - 3.13.10.

3rd round - 4.10.10.

I have not taken her to the doctor yet because it is the very same stuff. Only, her nose isn't really running this time. But she is sneezing.

Last Wednesday, she ran a fever. And Thursday. Then, gone. It disappeared as quickly as it arrived. She was fine after that. Saturday we had our family get-together. The weather was beautiful & she played outside for hours. Even put her feet in the pool. Around 1:00 a.m., the coughing began. We got thru the night, getting to sleep @ 2:30 a.m.

Sunday I began breathing treatments. Her coughing is so bad. She coughs so often, she barely has time to take a breath in between. Not a horrific cough, just an annoying, non-stop cough. No fever, nothing but sneezing. I'm contributing all this to allergies (because we had been outside prior) - the pollen here is unbelievable. But the coughing is so often, she can't sleep. Any.

She had no nap today. It's 9:10 p.m. She's still awake, coughing. I don't know what to do. I have her on Mucinex with an Expectorant. And breathing treatments. Neither seem to be doing any good. I don't know what the doctors would do differently, because it's their treatment(s) I'm following.

Tomorrow she goes to the Endocrinologist. I'm taking her. They look in her ears & they can tell me if she has an infection. Even though a specialist, I'll know from there if I need to take her somewhere else. Her required labwork will wait until she's better.

This is horrible. She is so exhausted. I am so exhausted & I am now running a fever. But really, who cares about me. I couldn't care a less - I have got to get my baby some help.

Tomorrow I do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this. I don't care if it means 4 different doctors. For now, I'm putting her in bed with me & praying we both get some sort of rest tonight.

I have photos to post. And the remaining Bliss to purchase. I will do both right after I get my precious one taken care of first.



*I am so glad we went ahead & made Mercedes' Endocrinologist appointment! Early this morning, I wasn't so sure we were going to go. I/we didn't actually see the Endocrinologist Dr. himself today, we saw his CPNP (nurse practitioner) & I just love, love, love her! We alternate appointments seeing him & seeing her, & quite honestly, I prefer her. She reminds me of Barbara Jean from Reba. Same disposition, looks similar & funny as all get out. :)

Mercedes does not have an ear infection! Woot! She does have fluid in one ear, but "M" is sure it's related to allergies (especially since all this began after playing outside for hours). She said at this point there is no need to take Mercedes to our regular physician. Yay! The reason the Albuterol treatments haven't worked much is because this is allergy related & not bronchial. However, she said the treatments have prevented the symptoms from turning into something worse, so no harm has been done. :) She also said allergies, if not treated, can turn into an ear infection, so possibly that's what we were dealing with in February (& the ear infection never completely went away, which we discovered in March).

Ok. All that to say. I've been giving the wrong medication! Sort of. Two or three times I gave Mercedes Mucinex Cold (I have been alternating that with a prescribed cough medication/decongestant we got from the dr. in February - I probably should have stuck with administering just that!), which has an expectorant & decongestant. Good stuff, she said! But I gave it at the wrong time(s). I thought an expectorant was to hinder coughing. Wrong. The expectorant encourages 'cough it up', so I want to administer that during the day, not at bedtime. At bedtime, I need to administer a suppressant. Because Mercedes is a tad congested, she recommended Robitussin DM ('D' is for decongestant). When all this clears up, if pollen and/or ragweed is up, she said to administer Zyrtec or Claritin daily until levels go down. She said this rule of thumb can apply to all littles, not just Mercedes. So I'll be doing a trial & error, so to speak. The even better news is that Mercedes cough is much improved today.

I'm certain C3 has the very same thing - though she doesn't typically get ear infections - so I'm not concerned w/ having her ears checked. I'll be using the same medication(s) for her, as well. This morning she sounded very croupy, but I haven't heard it since & her cough is now minimal. She's suffering from the same stuffy, runny nose & sneezing. Just generally blah & icky feeling.

Time to get past this & time for this family to get some sleep! I'm so grateful for M today. So thankful I/we made the appointment. Thank you for all the well wishes! :)

(Mercedes was 95% in height & 75% in weight. Pretty perfect & tall & lean! Just like her sister. :)