The Summer of Odd and Varied Maladies

So far this summer we've dealt with two health issues that, at least in my world, go in the ''weird" box.  For starters, Charlotte came down with hand, foot, and mouth disease a few weeks ago.  This may be a relatively common childhood virus, but it is definitely torturous and . . . well, weird.  The sores in her mouth were apparently excruciating.  She wouldn't eat or drink for three days and basically cried when she wasn't sleeping.  And when she wasn't sleeping, she just wanted to be held.  And holding a feverish, crying two-and-a-half year old is also kind of torturous.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind it one bit, I want to offer my girls whatever comfort I can when they're sick, and I know she was in severe pain, but there was nothing I could do to make it better.

Thankfully she woke up on the fourth day of the plague and asked for water, or more accurately, said, "Me thirsty, me need waler."  Those were the five most beautiful words I'd heard in a long time.  After spending days trying to get her to take in some nutrition in some form, having her ask for water was huge.  We were incredibly blessed that neither Caroline nor Camille came down with it after Charlotte recovered.

Next in line for the Beck girls was Caroline's profusely bleeding ear.  Her left ear had been "yucky" for several days (and I'll just leave it at that) and actually bled a little bit once of twice in there.  But then on a Friday she woke up with a pool of blood in her ear and dried blood caked to the side of her face.  To say the least it was slightly disconcerting.  After I cleaned her up she said it didn't hurt, so I decided that she might have some kind of bad infection as it didn't continue to bleed for the next several hours.  Then it happened again the next morning, and again the next, and the next.  So off to the doctor we went to get Dr. K's diagnosis (and for the record Dr. Mom had diagnosed a ruptured ear drum.  Genius, I know.).  She concurred with my ruptured ear drum diagnosis, but I think she said, "perforated" in place of ruptured.  In any event, she put Caroline on an oral antibiotic and antibiotic droops and wanted to see her back the next week.

We dutifully returned the next week expecting to hear that it was all better because we hadn't seen any more drainage in days.  It, however, was not to be, and she sent us off to the ENT with instructions to try to be seen that same day.  So we somehow got in that afternoon and Dr. S looked in the ear and said, "Well, it looks like a perforated ear drum, but it's actually her tube that has had a membrane grow over it and now it's trying to get out."  Good news and bad news!  The good news was that Caroline wasn't going to have to have a graft surgery on her ear drum, the bad news was that it likely still required surgery.  As I sit here today though, we've seen Dr. S again and she's hopeful that with continued use of the drops the tube might be able to push it's way out.  So, I would appreciate all prayers aimed in that direction!

And on to my sweet Camille.  She has bronchitis right now, but other than that, she's been the picture of health.  At least as far as this family is concerned.  She does seem to suffer from some slight allergies, which is so odd because Caroline and Charlotte have had allergy troubles off and on too, but neither Jeff nor I had allergies as kids.  In any event, Camille's issues are pretty under control with a little Claritin each morning.  It's so hard to fathom that she's inching closer to one year by the day.  Soon enough I'll be frantically planning her party at the very last minute.