Sick Baby

Claire's sick. :( She picked up a cold at daycare a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty much just a runny nose for about 10 days, but right before I left for my trip (literally as I'm packing her into her carrier to go to daycare Monday morning) the cold added on a cough. James said her cough was still there Wednesday when I got home from my trip, so I decided to call the nurses' line on Thursday morning to see whether I should take her in. If Dr. Frank was just going to tell me that it's a cold and we can't do anything about it, I didn't want to bother going in and would go to strollerskate instead. But, the nurse said that given the fact that she had the cold about two weeks at that point, we should bring her in to make sure the fluid wasn't going to her ears. I called the school to let them know Claire wouldn't be in that morning.

Dr. Frank confirmed that her ears looked great (no fluid) but that I was right about the cough; the cold was moving into her lungs. He prescribed her her very first medicines for the bronchilitis (not bronchitis) which pretty much means some inflammation of the lungs. I asked him whether she was contagious, and he said that her cold (well, the snot) was but that the cough wasn't. I asked whether she should go to daycare, and he said that it's probably where she picked it up in the first place and that a common cold is probably expected when that many kids are in close quarters to one another. Sooo ...

I call the school after I pick up Claire's prescription to find out what the procedure is if they need to administer medicine during school. The lady who answered asked how Claire was and I responded, "fine, she just has a small cold". She asked what the doctor called it. I thought it was a random question, but I said, "he said it's a cold moving into her lungs, giving her some brochiolitis, I believe; not bronchitis, though". She said, "oooh ... that sounds very contagious; I don't think you should bring her in". Now, I know where she's coming from, but I specifically asked the doctor, she has had no fever, plus it's already been 10 days so I have a feeling all the kids already had whatever Claire had (or gave it to her in the first place).

I pretty much explained that and her response was "I haven't seen any sick kids in the infant room. There may be some little ones with runny noses due to teething, but there's no notification posted that there is anyone sick." Are you freaking kidding me?! You can just LOOK in the room to see there are snot-nosed kids everywhere. I told that to her in so many words (in a pretty nice way, though, I think). Then she said, "well, I have this paper right here, and what you said she has is very contagious and you're not allowed to bring her in".

Now, if I had an option that day, I would not have, but I had meetings .. and now I was pissed. "Are you a doctor?", I asked. "What?". "ARE YOU A DOCTOR?", I asked again. "No.". "Well, neither am I, but I did ask my doctor whether it was okay to bring her in, and he said yes. What do I need to do in order to clear this up?". She said she'd have to get the director to call me back in a few minutes. Fine.

The director called me back shortly and apologized. She said she looked it up, and it sounds like Claire has a cold that's moving some into her chest (duh) but it would be okay for her to come in. So, I packed her up and dropped her off, but this one's sticking with me.

On Friday, I ended up not having to take her in either because my parents came up to visit. Yes, you read that right; my parents - who canceled their trip up here last week because they decided to stay in Houston to enjoy the beautiful Ike experience despite (or because of?) a mandatory evacuation - decided to come up now that the power was finally back on. Hilarious.

The meds are working, though. Claire was a little groggy on Thursday and Friday, I think mostly due to her first flu shot, but in much better spirits today. I held her to sleep on Friday night to aid the drainage, but she's much, much better today. I'm totally bummed I had to miss strollerskate Thursday and our impromptu playdate Friday, but I'm not willing to get others' little ones sick. My goal right now is just getting her well enough for our normal playgroup next week! It's a little ridiculous how much I look forward to those things, but I really do enjoy them. Something about hanging out with other moms with their babies about the same age as Claire ... so fun!