Not Quite As Fun as Conjunction Junction

Before we left on our cruise, the kiddo and I were both struggling with goopy noses and scratchy throats. I called the pediatrician and chatted with an advice nurse and she assured me that with those symptoms it was either allergies (though she insisted seasonal allergies don't manifest in children until they're at least five...maybe that should've been my first clue) or a virus. So basically, there was nothing they could do and no point to bringing him in. So we administered children's Claritin to him and Zyrtec-D to me and muddled through. On the cruise it mostly cleared up, though Mr. Runny Nose continued to be just that - though at least it was mostly clear the majority of the time.

The day before we got back, my dad came down with something that sent him to his bed (very unusual for him - he's a power through it, mind over matter type of guy)  and he started saying it was because the kiddo sipped from his soda. I reminded him that the kiddo just had allergies. He retorted that he caught the allergies then. When he got home, they actually ended up calling the doctor on Sunday and dad was diagnosed over the phone with acute bronchitis and a prescription called in.

The kiddo's nose started gooping up again on Monday. But Tim remarked that he hadn't realized just how bad his allergies are until he went on the cruise (where he basically never even remembered that he had allergy medicine with him cause he just didn't need it) and then came back and could feel his head filling back up with crud. So I figured, ok, great, allergies are back and went back on the Claritin train. Except that it didn't really seem to help as much and he was tugging on his ear so much that he had little scratches in it.

That flipped the switch for me so I dragged him to the doctor on Tuesday. Of course, he was pronounced 100% healthy but just an "allergy boy". Asked about the ear tugging, the doctor said that there was a little fluid in it, but it wasn't infected and should clear up. Continue the Claritin and come back in 10 days if he's not at least a little better.

Yesterday (Wednesday) his eye started oozing yellowy goo. I wiped it and washed our hands and wiped it some more and washed our hands and so forth and so on. And I called the doctor last night and was told that yeah, sometimes the eyes get involved with allergies. (Ok, I'm not really stupid - I know eyes can get irritated with allergies, but I've never seen this kind of goop with just allergies.) And somewhere in there I obviously didn't wash my hands as well as I thought I did because by 9:30 last night my eye was red and itchy and starting to crust over.

This morning I had to wash my face in order to open my eye. The kiddo wasn't quite so poorly off, but he still looked dreadful. So we were off to the Minute Clinic at CVS to be there as close to them opening as we could be. (You might remember this Minute Clinic as that of the mandatory 2 hour lunch break.) Since we were nowhere near lunch time, I figured we'd be in and out, no muss no fuss. After all, it was 9:30 and they open at 9. Except that when we got there, they were still closed. I knocked on doors to no avail but stopped short of asking at the pharmacy because really, if you say you open at 9, you should be open at 9.

Back to the car we went, me and the bored toddler who was now asking to make pee pee, because that's what you do when you're 2 and bored. I asked him if he could hold it, he said sure, so we headed back home and I got the number for his ped and called. They could see him late tonight. And that didn't really help me. I hesitated to call my doctor, because while I think she's great, she's always at least 2 hours behind schedule and you're there for at least 2 hours yourself (not including the waiting time) and well, I didn't really want to devote my day to that and then take the kiddo to his doctor. So I flipped a U and went back, past the CVS, to the urgent care that had helped me last time CVS failed me (Moral of the story: CVS does not actually want to help you get better). They were open (hurrah!) and had no wait (double hurrah!) and they saw me and the kiddo at the same time.

Which was convenient on two fronts. One, we both needed to be seen, and two, we both have pink eye. (His is in combination with an ear infection, mine is in combination with "almost" strep.) Antibiotics are on order and will be picked up with Tim on his way home from the doctor who will hopefully give him something for the sinus infection he has.

On the positive side, the kiddo can now say "Conjunctivitis."