Shingles and Ear Infections

Hey.

Remember that time that I had Shingles? "Shingles? The disease that tends to plague 85 year old men?" Why yes, yes, that Shingles. Yup.  

Last week I kept telling Matt "Look at my back, there must be a bruise there, it hurts so bad!" It's hard to explain, but my skin just hurt. Then a lump cropped up and I thought "Well that's weird." Then the next day a very itchy and painful rash showed up. Following a band. Had I been an 85 year old man my first thought may have been Shingles, but it took me a couple days to realize that that's probably what it was. I had an appointment with my doctor this Friday for my thyroid anyway, so I moved it up and went today. And told her "Don't think I'm crazy, but I think I have Shingles!" And...tada! I do. She kept looking at it, shaking her head, and saying "That's shingles! What the heck?" Haha! She assured me that anymore it's not only older people that get it, but younger people as well. I have to take an antiviral pill twice a day for a week - all that does is stop it from spreading which it will continue to do if not treated. She also put on me and gave me some samples of a numbing cream to help with the itching and pain. It's super itchy and painful to lean against - like when I"m driving or sitting on the couch - and it doesn't feel great when Matt hugs me or when my shirt rubs against it. And that's that. I have Shingles.   {If you don't know, shingles is the chicken pox virus - you have to have had chicken pox to get shingles. If you haven't had chicken pox - you can get it from someone with shingles. :/ Neither Paiton nor Quinn has had chicken pox. Paiton has had one of the two vaccines for it, but Quinn hasn't had any. So cross your fingers and toes that they don't get chicken pox!! And if you've been around me that last week or so and haven't had chicken pox, cross your fingers that you don't get it either!) 

In other medical related news - Paiton's pediatrician should be able to put that fancy pool in now, as we paid her another visit yesterday! Two weeks ago Paiton woke up from a nap crying that her ears hurt. We waited it out a couple hours ago, then headed to Primary Health (because naturally this happened on a Sunday night) and she was diagnosed with two raging ear infections. She was SO not feeling good and SO mad at the (super weird) doctor that she didn't know and was crying so hard that she threw up all over both he and I. Then the only open pharmacy was out in Boise and we had to wait 45 minutes (covered in vomit) for her antibiotics. She finished her antibiotic on Wednesday night. Friday night she started crying, holding her ears, saying they hurt and her throat hurt. I made her wait it out, but Saturday morning she still was crying and saying her ears and throat hurt. Took her to a different urgent care and after 2.5 hours there we found out she STILL had two raging ear infections and that they were near rupturing, again. The doctor insisted that it had to be treated with two antibiotic shots (which I questioned a few times - we've done this a million times - frequently the first dose of Augmentin doesn't work for Paiton and we have to also do a round of Omnicef, but she insisted we just go straight to the shot) so - Paiton got two shots in the bum cheeks. She was NOT a happy camper. The doctor told me to bring her back Sunday morning and if her ears weren't better she'd be getting another set of shots. Sunday morning rolled around and all Paiton would say is "My ears don't hurt because I don't want more shots." I still wasn't totally on board with what the doctor had done, and she didn't seem to be in pain, so I didn't take her back and instead took her to her doctor on Monday morning. She said her ears had cleared up, totally disagreed with the way it was treated (I knew she would and I'm glad I didn't take her back Sunday) and after looking at her chart realized she's had ear infections in March, April, May, and now June. One or two more earns her a trip to the ENT (I hear she needs to add a water slide to the pool we paid for her to put in ;)) so, let's really hope we're done with ear infections. In "normal" kids taking tonsils and adenoids out is usually enough to stop ear infections. But we all know that my kids aren't normal (and apparently, neither am I.) Sigh. 

Here's a cute picture of Paiton giving Gator some shots and band aids. (Gator had to come because "his ears and throat hurt too, Mommy." Luckily the doctor was super nice and checked Gator out as well as Paiton, and gave Gator his shots before she got hers.)