e. coli

yup, that's what she has in her system according to the hospital who called me on Friday.

After fighting with her for 3 days and tearful calls (my tears along with hers) to our doctor regarding what we should do they (our doctor) said bring her in and do another urinalysis to see what the antibiotics are doing for her. Turns out - nothing because in the 10.5 tsp she should have gotten into her system we are guessing she got MAYBE 2 tsp. We tried everything - hiding it, holding her down, bribing, you name it we tried it. So, they decided to give her a shot - I can't remember the name of the antibiotic they gave her off hand but it is a potent one and they have to give it in her hip because it is just too much for her arm or leg. Luckily, they diluted it with novicane so while she felt the initial poke it didn't hurt nearly as much as it could have. On top of that they said once the novicane wore off she would be sore but she wasn't. Our doctor prescribed Amoxicillian as well to make sure that the infection was completely gone and we will go back on Tuesday for another urinalysis to see what is going on. Great plan - I thought - since she SAYS she likes the pink medicine and won't fight me on it - she PROMISES - because she does NOT want another shot.

Load the girls up in the car, drive to Walgreens to get the prescription filled. Miss a phone call from the hospital but rather than call while I'm in the car - drive home to put Sarah to bed since she has fallen asleep in the car. Call the hospital to find out what they need and they tell me the antibiotic they prescribed on Tuesday will not work for the germs that grew. I told them what we had done - they said they were going to ask us to bring her in to have the same shot so we didn't have to do that but that Amoxicillan will NOT work on the strain of e.coli that she has in her system and they are prescribing ANOTHER antibiotic. Find out it is Furadantin one she has taken in the past and HATES!! Dandy. Back to square one.

Apparently, e.coli is in everyone's system to some extent but it is a pain to get rid of when it causes a UTI - at least this strain. I made the mistake of googling and have really pushed the antibiotic today. (We waited until today to start the Furadantin because of the shot being so powerful. We didn't want her tummy to get too upset.)

We have figured out how to get MOST of the tsp into her though. The prescription is for 1 tsp 4 times a day - 4 TIMES!! - for 5 days - thank goodness only 5 days but I'm not sure how it will go when Brent isn't around. Anyway, back to my unorthodox way of getting her to take the medicine. She loves Mary Poppins and was watching it the other day. Remember the song "A Spoonful of Sugar" and how it helps the medicine go down? Well, I take the 1 tsp and mix it with about a half a tablespoon of sugar. A little gritty but it makes it super sweet. She still doesn't like it and it makes it more volume wise than a tsp. So I draw up a half to 3/4 tsp into the dropper and force that in her because she likes her "treat" for when she finishes little does she know that it has the rest of the antibiotic mixed in. The treat is chocolate syrup mixed with the remainder of the antibiotic. Yup, very unorthodox and she would NEVER get to drink 2 tsps of pure chocolate syrup any other time especially 4 times a day and the first dose at breakfast. But at this point whatever works we will do. I can't just give her the chocolate with medicine in it because if she knew that it had the medicine in it she wouldn't take it on principle. The stuff we force into her is messy and we may only be getting a portion of it in but at least she is getting much more than she was before. I'm hoping and praying this all works and she is clear on her urinalysis on Tuesday. Sure would be nice if she would go to the bathroom in the toilet again though. We have had more "accidents" in the last few days because it hurts for her to go to the bathroom. She holds it so long and then just dribbles to relieve the pressure. She has been wearing pullups - which I hate to do but I'm tired of cleaning my couch, the carpet, her bed and the 10 pairs of underwear and complete outfits she must change every day.

On top of all this Sarah has a cold - runny nose, slight cough (although that hasn't gone away since we got her) I just want the kids to be healthy.

So, pray for Hannah to get better, Sarah to get over her cold, all of them not to drive me crazy with the bickering while Brandon is off for 2 weeks, and I'm looking for a teaching position - our plate is full!