Breaking the bank

Once again I REALLY thought I wouldn't blog. Today was going to be the easy day. No carpooling duties, no shopping necessary. I'll get some housework done and when Coby got home from school I'd start our ritual. But

All that came to a grinding halt when I got a call from the nurse. My heart was pounding when I realized his school was calling. "Could he be having a delayed reaction to dosing? Is he having a regular reaction to exposure?" As a food allergy parent whenever you get a call from your child's camp or school- your immediate thought is that he's having an anaphylactic reaction.

Thank G-d Coby was 'okay' (ish)- a fever of 103.9. But still---- CRAP!!!! I mean, I don't think one can get fever from dosing.... BUT I also learned that dosing with fever can bring upon an anaphylactic reaction. This is the reason why your child cannot bathe within one hour of dosing or two hours after dosing- because the body temp needs to stay at 98.6. BUT skipping a dose can mean you are falling backwards back to square one and undoing any progress that is being made. WHY is this happening already?????

The moment I got off the phone with his school I ran out of the house to get Coby. I didn't grab a credit card, I didn't grab a purse. I didn't even bother turning off the tv.

While I was driving to school I was on the phone with Yitz telling him, 'call the allergist NOW- we are supposed to be dosing at 4:30! What do we do?????'

Yitz got through to them right away and called me back saying, 'get him to the doctor- and as soon as you are done there, call the doctor back so they can figure out what to do.'

BUT I didn't have my insurance card. I didn't have a credit card to pay what we just received a bill for. Our doctor usually asks for the insurance card each and every time before seeing your child and makes sure all bills are paid too.

Oh and to add to the fun- Yitz wasn't even at his office today- he was out at some big thing where reception is soooo bad. He managed to call the dr and get me an appointment straight out of Coby's school, explained the insurance card situation & paid our bill over the phone. He then texted me, 'the allergist may be calling you soon- he has to call you because I barely have reception'- the thing is..... I don't know how to put my ringer on!!! It vibrates but I haven't figured out how to turn my ringer on and have missed calls because of that. I know- I'm a moron. But going on...

We get to the doctor. Coby is in good spirits saying his only symptom is being very tired. Diagnosis- strep. I'm so relieved the test came back positive- because I was worried that I brought Coby to the dr at the first possible second, that if it was strep- it may be too early for a positive. Thank goodness it showed so fast!

the silly patient

BUT I had no credit card on me so I couldn't even pick up the medicine right away. The drop off line took forever as I'm trying to call the allergist. I had to drive back home to grab money to pick up the medicine.... BUT I CANT FIND ANY FREAKING MONEY IN THE HOUSE! I had my credit card, but knew that since we hit our deductible (again thanks to lyme disease's 31 appointments within one month) that the prescription may be pennies and too little to charge.

I actually had to go somewhere I never went before & asked Coby if I can borrow some money. He was happy to lend it to me (reminding me we still owe him allowance ;), and he cracked open his safe (really!!!) to get the money out and give me 10 bucks.

dramatic re-enaction of scene

While home I gave Coby his zyrtec dosage. "Why are you giving it to me? This is supposed to be an hour before my dosing"
"Because I don't know what the doctor will say about dosing and it needs to be in you."
(Zyrtec stays in the system for 24 hours but we need to keep giving it to him about the same time to keep it in his system.)

We drove back to CVS and there was no one on line!!!! But nah, can never be that easy. They couldn't find the right bottle to put his medicine in and we ended up waiting about a half hour while my heart is doing somersaults because I just wanted to get the medicine into my kid because this is so much more beyond a regular illness with all that is going on.

The allergist meanwhile told me that he is very reluctant to not dose Coby at all because he will fall backwards- BUT dosing with fever is even more risky. He tried to find a more even balance and told me to get his antibiotics into him, dose him a HALF DOSE a couple of hours later than we usually do to give the antibiotics a chance to start working- and then watch very carefully.... He said there's a small chance we can be back to full dose by tom. evening- BUT strep sometimes takes 2 days now instead of 1 for the fever to be gone so we may have to stay on half a dose tomorrow too and be back to full dose come shabbos.

The thing is.... while we are 'halving' his dose- the likelihood of a worse reaction is much higher now. And I'm soooo scared. This road is so difficult. I know, I know- a year or so of high anxiety and stress but G-d willing then the next 100 of freedom and safety.

Speaking about anxiety- Coby had wet his bed last night too. That's not like him. Is he feeling the stress even though he's not verbalizing it? His insistence on walking slow motion, his cold hair and this is making me think my poor baby is quite nervous (though very excited too.)

Got home gave him his antibiotics. This is so complicated! Normally he comes home from school 3:45- gets zyrtec. 4PM start carbo loading. 4:30 dose. Then water & applesauce followed by an hour of intense observation, 2 hours of no exercise or bath and a few hours of lighter observation. Nose drops before bed.

(And I have to do his pistachio dose too because it's Thursday. (Once he passed pistachios and hazelnut food challenges- those foods need to incorporated into his diet so he doesn't develop a true allergy- Tuesday is Nutella day, Thursday is Pistachio day.)

Now??? Zyrtec. Antibiotics. His carb loading will be supper time. I think I'm going to give him tylenol (he had ibuprofen 2.5 hours ago) to help keep fever down as low as possible. (The ibupofren brought it down to 102.5sh), dose him. Watch and pray. I asked Yitz to try to get home as close to 6:30 as possible because I am so scared of a 'real reaction' tonight.

G-d willing this is just a small glitch and I find the comedy in the story above. G-d willing he has half a dose a couple of days- and does not react despite his fever and come shabbos we are able to get him back to his full dose and he IYH won't react despite it being double the dose he had the prior two days.

...and now I need to get some money into the house so I can pay back my 8 year old who proudly announced to the pharmacist, "THAT'S MY MONEY!" as I paid for his meds. Okay I was 'slightly' embarrassed. And how appropriate is it that when I googled 'blushing clipart' the second picture that popped up was Charlie Brown- one of the original PEANUTS!

Maybe I do need some more inspiration from Good Ol' Charlie Brown:

Awww, thanks Chuck!

****HOLY CRAP I DONT HAVE ANY TYLENOL AT HOME... I MADE SURE I HAD IBUPROFEN BEFORE GOING BACK TO CVS BUT NOW I REALIZE I DONT HAVE TYLENOL. SO BACK OUT WE GO! CRAP CRAP CRAP. And ironically when i parked the car Coby said, 'now we can stay in the rest of the day?' And I said, "that's the plan- but who the heck knows anymore,' and we both giggled. SIGH.

*****and another holy crap moment came when someone on my OIT board said one is not supposed to use ibuprofen when doing OIT. WTH? He had ibuprofen at 3 & I planned on giving it to him later to keep his fever from spiking. We paged the doctor and the doctor said ibuprofen is known to cause hives in a select amount of people, but given how high Coby's fever got and the added danger of dosing with fever we should continue with the ibuprofen.

3 times at CVS in less than 2 hours- no biggie. Though when I told Coby when we get home he can put his pajamas back on he said, "No- if I do that then we'd just end up having to go back out today!" Guess he gets Murphy's law.