Sickies

So yeah, the scratchy throat turned into a Thing, and it was the kind of Thing where every time I spoke, people were backing away from me in alarm. (So naturally, Alex decided that he really would prefer me to be the one to read to him throughout all his waking hours...) Anyway, I went home early Wednesday, and worked from home Thursday morning. I went to the doctor Thursday afternoon, and he poked and prodded and "mm-hmm"ed at me, and said, "You're hitting all my favorite boxes on the Strep Checklist!"

So he stuck two huge q-tips down my throat and sent one off to the lab and put the other in a "quick strep test" kit, and while he was waiting for the quick test results, he called some antibiotics into my pharmacy, because even if I didn't have strep, I had something, and that something included an ear infection, so it was going to be antibiotics anyway.

The quick test came back negative, however -- much to my doctor's surprise, and he said he wasn't going to believe it until he'd gotten the results from the lab on Monday. And in the meantime, stay home, take it easy, blah blah blah. Antibiotics and cough syrup.

Friday, I was actually feeling almost human again. My voice was coming back -- still gravelly, but at least present. Still probably contagious, though, so I stayed home and worked from home for most of a full day. I got kind of tired and drained in the mid-afternoon, and gave up before I clocked a full 8 hours, but at least I didn't burn an entire vacation day on the whole mess. (I got so much done, too -- I really should work from home more often!)

It meant that Matt was the one to take Alex to see the Ear/Nose/Throat doctor Friday afternoon, though, since I didn't think I should spread my germs around. Not that there was a surprise: the doctor agreed that Alex's ears were a mess and gave us another round of antibiotics for him, plus some steroids to help him heal up faster, plus some ear drops. And he scheduled surgery to have tubes put in next month. (I like my ENT guy. He trusts his patients -- or their parents -- to know what's what. If we come in and say, "No, really, this calls for tubes," then he's not going to insist on messing around with another six months of antibiotics. I didn't think to ask if we should just get the adenoids at the same time and take care of it all in one fell swoop, though. Oh, well.)

Since Matt did that trip, I took Penny to her quarterly endocrinology checkup today. That went almost shockingly well -- she's a little taller than last time, sitting smack on the curve on the doctor's chart; her weight went up but only a little, so she's starting to level off a bit there; and her A1C came down from 7.9 to 7.8 (the recommended range for kids 6 and under is 7.5 to 8.5, so she's exactly where she should be). The doctor said she looked fine and fit and healthy, though since she's at a high risk for hypothyroidism, he wanted to do a blood check. Even that went spectacularly, though. I suggested that since she's a first grader now, she could be a big, brave girl, and she agreed, and so we went down to the lab and when they called us back, she sat on my lap and held my hand and didn't so much as wince when the nurse did the draw. I was so filled with pride that I did not protest even a little when she asked for the biggest toy in the prize basket (a teddy bear).

But that was today, and before today, there was the weekend. Which was quite good.

Saturday, our neighbors filled up Ray's inflatable pool, and Penny and Ray played for several hours. I brought Alex out after his nap, and though he was Very Reluctant to do anything but sit on my lap at first, Matt eventually coaxed him into the pool. (Let's go sit over here next to it... Hey, check it out, you can splash this water here, isn't that fun? Look, if you sit here you can dangle your feet in the water! Aaaand now we're wading around and pouring water on ourselves from a bucket!) Matt got completely drenched in the process, but Alex (and Penny and Ray) had a blast.


Sunday was Father's Day, of course, and that was good -- Penny made Matt breakfast on a tray (with some guidance from me) and gave him some cards and pictures she'd drawn, and then after Alex had his nap we went over to my parents' for dinner. I made dessert -- a recipe I adapted off the Weight Watchers website for individual-serving apple crumbles, and I'm sure I can shave another point off the recipe, because they were really too sweet. (And maybe even another point after that, though since cooking with sugar substitutes is tricky, that'll take some experimentation.) Anyway, my grandparents had a great time playing with the kids, and we got to visit with John some, which was nice since we hadn't seen him in person for a while.

So yeah. Sick, and then a pretty good weekend, and then a really excellent doctor's visit for Penny this morning. And that's why you haven't heard from me for a while.