The Cabbage Patch

Dental Visit Times Four

We had four dental checkups for four kids this morning.  They all had zero cavities--this is a special concern as Ben has a ton of them.  Their cleaning could use a little help as the best grade for teeth cleanliness was a B+ by the two youngest.  In the future, though, we have two teeth extractions and sealant for 6 molars on two kids.  They've inherited my jaw, I guess, and their teeth are getting crowded.  Braces are in the future for these kiddoes.  Sorry, guys. 

The denist complimented me on the job I was doing.  I thought he was talking about the teeth, but he clarified that he meant on how well my children were behaving.  He said he's seen too many not so good ones come through.  I felt so good coming out of there. 

Busy Season

Well, I've been very, very quiet everywhere.  That's because it's NOT been very quiet here.  Since last Friday, the 7th, we've done the following:

• One play performance by our homeschool group (which I co-directed)
• 2 dress rehearsals and 4 performances for the Nutcracker
• 1 trip to the ER
• Several trips to the airport to try to get Ben off for a funeral
• School?  Maybe.  I think we did some math

Luckily, for us, we school year round and it balances out in the end.  We've been using Catholic Mosaic, Christmas Mosaic, along with Elizabeth's Tomie dePaola unit.  Our homeschool group has an activity each Friday from Elizabeth's unit. 

The above is a good list of things I want to blog about.  Oh, and there's also our tree. 

I guess I should talk about the ER trip a bit.  Pumpkin has pneumonia and an ear infection.  That's the fastest we've been through the ER. 

Medical Update

Diagnosis:  Allergic reaction to amoxicillin.

Phew!

It Makes Me Itch Just Looking at It

Poor guy, it's itching him like crazy.  This doesn't look like chicken pox.  I hope it's just a reaction to his medication and not a virus.  If it's a virus, I apologize in advance to all my friends for exposing you to this at Honey's party.

Mysterious Rash

Brother has a rash.

It started out this morning as like this just below his neck and between his shoulder blades.  As you can see it's spread.  I didn't have any luck with a doctor's appointment.  I left a message for the triage doctor to call me.  As you can imagine, he had no idea (as if he could tell over the phone).  One possibility is an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin but we're not sure yet.  The doc seemed really anxious to get off the phone.  Anyway, we now have an appointment for 3pm tomorrow.  The rash had at one point this evening merged together into one big splotch from one shoulder blade to the other.  It was itching to I went out and bought some Benadryl cream and applied it. 

His chest which is not so bad but it had been clear this morning.  Right before falling asleep, he came downstairs to share the bumps growing on his neck.  I hope I don't end up in the emergency room with this. 

I did learn something new today.  A very good friend lets us bug him about medical questions.  He's a very intelligent man and a doctor I would use if he were in the field I need him in (he's not).  Oh, well.  Anyway, I had called to ask if we should discontinue the amoxicillin since the triage doc neglected to tell me one way or the other (and I couldn't ask the question fast enough).  Then I asked if I could just put some hydrocortisone cream on it.  He said no.  Apparently, hydrocortisone cream is an immunosuppresant.  So, if the rash if caused by a virus (unknown at this point), it would suppress the immune system on the rash and cause the rash to grow more--we'd be sort of feeding it.  I love learning these tidbits of information.  Thanks, Carl (our fav doc)!!!

I'll update you as soon as I know.