more news on Brooke

~ today we went back to the doctor, who I've decided I like. Brooke seems to like him too. She had to hide on him before he came in the room to see her. Then she was being silly with him while he was examining her. I'm glad that she is feeling better, and that she is liking the doctor. Those are both good things...

What is also good is that her lungs sound IMPRESSIVELY better. The doctor said he is very pleased and quite impressed with how fast her turn around has been with her lung health. He said he heard no wheezing and that means that the tightness is probably going away. She still has to finish both antibiotics still... the one for her ears and the one for her lungs. We go back on Wednesday to see him again to check everything once more and at that time she will have another chest x-ray to make sure we got everything with the antibiotic and also to make sure her collapsed lung is healing.

Also on the good news front is that she has NOT vomited in over 24 hrs. :) yay.

NOT so good news... she is having diarrhea from the meds, and although this is day three, she has only had two dosages of each because they have to be given around the same time each day for them to be the most effective, so that is what we are doing and that is around 2 PM and 5:30 PM... but the good thing is she ate frozen yogurt for me last night so hopefully that will balance out the diarrhea. We'll see. I'm going to try to get some more "ice cream" in her today too.

Also, not so good news, is that she isn't really drinking for us. She wants things like iced tea and milk when she does want to drink... neither of them are good for her right now. The caffeine in the iced tea, is NOT good at all for trying to get her re-hydrated and the milk will make the diarrhea worse. UGH! It is almost like she knows these aren't good and that is why she is choosing them, but I know that isn't the case. I have been trying hard to push the Pedialyte without ticking her off and having her not want to drink anything... but it is hard. She is very irritable. (the doctor said at this point he is thinking it is more because she is THREE rather than that she isn't feeling well :P I completely agree!)

MORE not so good news is that her ears still look bad, and she is still complaining about them... she has been complaining about her right ear the most, which was the one that wasn't the most infected when we went on Wednesday... BUT today the doctor said that they are both still really red, there is less puss with is a good sign, but now the right ear is "bulging" ~ not sure what this means, but it does NOT sound good.

She is also still have temps. Not too high because I have kept her medicated with Tylenol and Motrin every 5 hrs now. It was every four, but I've spread it out more because I thought it had to start getting better by now... I guess I was wrong. The doctor said that she can still spike high fevers till day 4 or 5 of the antibiotic... she is only on them for 5 days for her ears, but is on the one for her lungs for 10 days... so maybe that will continue to help her ears too. I hope they are much better by then, but we'll see. I'm hoping with today treatment of meds, day three, she starts to feel much better. :)

I would also like to stop having to give her the pain relievers at all, I'm not a huge fan of medication like that. But I'll do what is best for her and right now she really needs them, for the temps and also the pain.

I'm concerned about her RIGHT ear, well both of them, but the right one now that he said it is bulging. I would GOOGLE it, but I hate reading things that I find on there that are medical related because it usually scares the shit out of me. But maybe I will see what I find later. I'm not sure. I'd also like to really catch a nap later, I have been up since 5 AM this morning with Brooke & Lauren... Brooke was coughing terrible and Lauren was up because of that... and I'm beat.

The doctor said he can't prescribe her anything for her cough because it is not good for children under five and it is pretty much banned to give it to her by law, so that is good with me, I don't want to harm her at all, I only want to make her feel better. And, he agrees with me that over the counter medicines for cough and cold don't do diddly! ** I saw a study done that showed the effects of cough medicine ~ over the counter that is ~ and sugar water given to children had the same results. lol ~ I'm not a big medicine giver, but that also sealed the deal with me, I rarely give my children over the counter cough and cold meds. I usually use Vicks on their chest and feet, and I'm not sure if this works or not for medical issues, but it does make you feel better to have that soothing Vicks on you and it smells so darn good too! ~ so for me it works... because anything that is going to sooth you when you don't feel good is something that is working. :)

The doctor did tell me that I could and should give Brooke a breathing treatment when she is coughing really badly... not just a cough here or there, but when she is continuously coughing and can't seem to stop and/or catch her breath. He said to only do one treatment every 6-8 hrs for coughing IF NEEDED. I'm not really pushing the breathing treatments unless really NEEDED anyway because they are steroids and speed up her heart rate and also make her jittery. I don't like steroids, in general, I mean I LOVE them because they made Brooke feel a million times better and also made it so she could actually breath, but I just don't really like her having them. Her, or any of my kids. So we'll see. She has been having some really bad coughing "fits" in the early morning, for the last few days. So we might need to do a treatment or two. We'll see how it goes.

So I think that is all. At least it is all I can remember... Did I mention that we are going to go back on Wednesday... well we do. and that is when she will see the doctor again and also have another chest x-ray.

And also the doctor is impressed with how fast she is healing/getting better/stronger because he said most kids he would have to hospitalize. She is a tough little cookie and has always seemed to defy the laws of everything. LOL I'm glad she is doing so much better. I just really hope that the meds all work and she is back to 100% as soon as she is done with the antibiotics. :)

Thank you all for you kind words, support and well wishes, that is what is also helping us get through all this and making my little girl healthier and stronger every day. :) love to you all.