I have been terrible at keeping up my blog. My readers (okay, one reader besides family) probably thought I fell off the ends of the earth. So, I am writing to assure you that I am alive. I have my baby girl back home sleeping next to me in my BRAND NEW BED!!! I was tired of sleeping in a twin bed and so I finally had Rooms-to-Go deliver the bedroom set I ordered 3 months ago. Who knows, maybe it will help sell the house. It is gorgeous... will be even more gorgeous when they deliver the fourth post that they forgot so that I can put up the canopy.
The week before Christmas was hectic as Katelyn AGAIN spiked a fever despite antibiotics and was cranky and her ears looked horrible, so despite a grand total of 23 days of oral antibiotics she ended up with 3 days of Rocephin shots (a strong antibiotic) and a procedure in the ENT's office where he put her in a papoose, popped holes in her ear drums and sucked out the yucky stuff to send for culture. Unfortunately we were flying to Nana's house the next day, so she had to have antibiotic injections 2 out of the 3 days were were there and the last day we flew back. It was too short of a trip. And I am super homesick, despite hating the cold.
Christmas was nice. I opened a few gifts with Katelyn at home on Christmas Eve before heading over to Dr. O's house for dinner. Christmas Day we opened more presents, packed up and headed to Orlando to see daddy, Abuelita, Abuelito, and all the Titi's, Tio's and Primos. Unfortunately we ended up with very few pictures. I forgot mine at Dr. O's so only had a few pics I took on Christmas Eve, then we took a ton in Orlando but when Edmond put the disk in the computer to burn a CD, the computer formatted the disk, thus erasing everything. But we do have the memories. Katelyn learned how to open the presents all by herself and once she could see the gift she would say, "Opey it, pease!" This was followed by, "nother one?" And so it went... the funniest moment was when she opened up the gift her Titi Lee got her, which was the giant Minnie Mouse she had fallen in love with at Disney, and she said, "Minnie Mouse!!! Where'd Mickey go?" I also found it funny that she tossed aside any and all boxes that could contain clothes w/o even opening the lid or looking in the bag. Her favorites were the baby doll cradle from Mommy, the baby doctor table and kit from daddy, Minnie Mouse and baby Emma from Santa that goes pee pee on the potty.
New Years was fun. I spent it in Orlando with Katelyn, her daddy and his family. Okay, so it may seem weird, but we get along fine, so why not. I spent the night there and drove back today.
As for Katelyn, her ears may finally be healed -- Praise God. The culture ended up growing Strep Pneumo (which is a bacteria she was immunized against with the Prevnar vaccine) and it was resistant to every oral antibiotic approved for children. Only Vancomycin (one of the strongest IV antibiotics available) and Levaquin (fluoroquinalones... a family of antibiotics which orally are really only approved for teens and adults). Ciprodex, an antibiotic ear drop, was the only thing that killed the bug that she was prescribed. Not only does that scare the living crap out of me, but pisses me off a little. My child never had a single antibiotic until she was almost 20 months old when she had her first ear infection and this was her second infection and already she was resistant to everything. Makes me want to smack upside the head all the patients I have seen who want an antibiotic for their child's cold -- A COLD IS A VIRUS and ANTIBIOTICS WON'T HELP because they kill BACTERIA; and a VIRUS is NOT a BACTERIA!!!!!!! Sorry, but it gets really frustrating, particularly since I know some other idiot doctors just prescribe the antibiotic despite the fact that it will not help and may actually hurt the patient or someone who comes in contact with them and their resistant bacteria. Sorry for that rant, but I am more of a naturalist and believe that medications have their place, but you must let your body do some of the work and there are no quick fixes. Thankfully, the ENT is going to be able to put tubes in Katelyn's ears and take out her adenoids later this month in hopes that she will actually be able to breath out of her nose well for the first time in forever (she has been a mouth breather since shortly after birth due to what we now know to be large adenoids and snores and is always stuffy).
As for me, I am hoping for a better year -- it won't take much given my last year. And I could use all the prayers available to get through until my contract is up b/c I HATE my new job. There are multiple reasons for this, but I am miserable. I love what I do, but I am not doing the job I was "sold" before signing a contract. And it may get worse before it gets better. I am just not sure how much more I can take before completely losing my cool. All the friends I have spoken to about my situation have been shocked that I have not totally lost it on my boss. And if it weren't for having to pay $10,000 if I break my contract I would be so out of there unless some major changes are made. Sorry, another rant. I am trying to get it all out now so that the rest of the year I can focus on the positive. Some MAJOR changes are gonna be a coming my way and hopefully things will all fall into place.
HAPPY NEW YEAR and GOD BLESS!!!
