A Tale Of Two Snotties

It was the best of boogers, it was the worst of boogers.

E-baby has begun to recover from her Frank McCourt symptoms*. This is the 3rd cold she's had in a row, and I'm starting to think it's something on our end that's causing her to get reinfected-- because it's also the 3rd time in a row I've caught her cold. I am a compulsive hand-washer but also a compulsive baby-kisser so who can say what caused it all. Maybe those babies just spend all day licking each others' faces at daycare.

Caution-- this paragraph contains graphic medical content. She woke up Monday feeling lethargic, but that was the only symptom. She'd nearly recovered from cold #2 but I knew something was wrong. Tuesday she had dark green nose trails, like forest colored caterpillars oozing from her head. Tuesday evening I noticed some stuff in her eye and tried to wipe it out, which might have made things worse, because by Wednesday afternoon both eyes were oosing green caterpillars too, and they eventually crusted shut and the lids were nearly purple from being swollen. It was painful to the touch and she wouldn't let me near her with a warm washcloth, tissue, anything. SNG took her to the doctor who prescribed an oral antibiotic, 2t twice a day for 10 days. He was right that we'd NEVER get drops into her eyes. E-baby calls the pink medicine in the mouth syringe "Baby's Treat." Actually it sounds more like "bay-bee-thh cheet- Mmmm!" I'm so glad it was cherry flavored and not spinach or listerine or something. I fully expect her to get sick of it by day 4 or 5.

I started taking Airborne on Wednesday night, but by Thursday afternoon I had the same lethargy that e-baby seemed to have on Monday along with a sore throat and chills and general body aches. This one? Not a regular cold. Definitely a flu. So much for that flu shot I got last Fall. I seem to be holding it mostly at bay with Tylenol and airborne. Since the last 2 colds I had also coincided with air travel, and (of course) next week I've got to fly again, I really don't want a head full of crud. Ascending is OK, but it's those descents that make your head explode with pain.

The good news is that the antibiotic is helping e-baby a lot. Her nose went from dark green to clear in about 24 hours, and by this morning the eyes had stopped oozing. She even went back to daycare today. Fingers crossed that she's actually getting better, and it's not just that she has blocked tearducts...

SNG needs to boil all our toothbrushes and bedsheets. Oh, and he has not caught either of the last 2 things.

* If you haven't read Angela's Ashes, you might not have caught the Frank McCourt reference. In it he describes working for a coal mine/delivery service as a youngster and having chronic conjunctivitis, causing his eyes to be described widely as "two piss-holes in the snow." Sorry if the colorful language offends-- it is literary so that makes it OK, right?