1 Mother 2 Another

I, know, you must think I’m making
this up, but I swear, my fantasies do not in any way involve
repeated vomiting and daily doses of Omnicef.


Yes, Cora woke up Friday morning after a second restless night in a
row, thirstily downed a bottle of water, and then threw it up all
over my bed. I sighed, cleaned it up, and settled in for the long
haul.

Cora begged to go downstairs for
breakfast, so I let her, knowing full well I’d see it all
again in a few minutes. I gave Cora her vitamin and left her in her
chair and bib to catch the, um, fallout. Maddie perched on the
chair next to Cora and began the “bedside watch”: it
was her job to let me know if Cora started crying or throwing up.
Meanwhile, I started a load of laundry, blew up the aerobed to
throw down in the game room, covered the thing with waterproof
pads, and stacked the other waterproof pads and towels nearby.


And then Maddie yelled, “Yep, Mommy, she’s throwing up
her vitamin!” right before Cora started crying.


I cleaned the mess up, then went through the checklist: no rash. No
stuffiness. No mucous. No fever. No sore throat.


I wasted no more time, and called the doctor. “Can I bring my
child in? She’s got strep throat.”


Cora exhibits strep throat in a very specific fashion, and I knew
that somehow she’d miraculously found someone carrying the
germ and had contracted it – AGAIN. The strep test was
negative, but the doctor agreed it was probably too early for it to
show up. She sent out a more accurate culture to be tested, but
knowing it wouldn’t come back, she put Cora on antibiotics
right away, giving me the option to wait or to start and
discontinue if the other test came back negative.


A few hours after the antibiotic, Cora became visibly better, but
the real test was Saturday morning: with a stomach virus, Cora will
typically be sick all morning, gradually recover during the day,
act chipper by bedtime, then throw up again the next morning. But
though Cora felt a little warm, she never threw up again and got
steadfastly better, leaving me certain it was strep.


I, of course, caught it as well, and had to go on medication
myself. But I’m so familiar with the signs in us by now that
I can nip it in the bud pretty darn quickly, if I do say so myself.


What’s the deal here? We’ve had the entire family
tested, and no one’s a carrier. Every time the doctor sees
Cora’s history with strep, she says accusingly, “Is
this child in daycare?” “Um, no, in fact, she’s
pretty much glued herself to my freakin’ leg, so cut me some
slack!”


Maybe I don’t say that exactly, but I think it.


The next step is a consult with a pediatric ENT, to discuss taking
out the tonsils. My baby seems way too young to need surgery, but
with her frequency the doctor is seriously considering it. I
don’t even want to think about it, and she’s said she
won’t push it until it happens again within a month or so.


Pardon us while we live in a bubble for the next thirty days.