WWYD - sick baby & travel?
somethingchangd
member
On Wednesday Oliver was diagnosed with a nasty double ear infection. We're now 5 doses into a 10 dose antibiotic prescription, but he's gotten worse the past few days. He's stopped sleeping at all, hasn't kept much food down since Monday (he throws it up *while* he's eating it, which his doc thinks is drainage/mucous related) and is just generally miserable (moaning and whining 95% of the time). His pedi was closed today. I tried taking him to 2 different minute-clinics - one closed, the other wouldn't actually examine him since he's already on antibiotics.
My dear, dear grandma died on Tuesday. The wake is on Monday, funeral on Tuesday. We have a 22 hour drive (and that would be straight through, which we won't do) between the funeral and us. The current plan is to leave super early in the morning and hope to arrive Sunday night. If we didn't leave until Sunday we would miss the wake. I didn't get any sleep the past 2 nights. We'll see what happens tonight.
I don't know what to think about Ollie's illness. Part of me thinks the antibiotics aren't working and it's getting worse. Part of me thinks he's got a perforated eardrum or something. A very small part of me is really worried, but generally I think he'll be ok.
My grandma was one of the most important people to me in my life. I can't bear to miss her funeral (or the wake, honestly). But the thought of dragging my sick baby on a 2 day car trip is equally excruciating. So, what would the wise women of SAIF do???
Amber
TTC since March '06
MFI, LPD, possible PCOS
3 chem pgs * m/c identical twins at 9w 10.06
IVF w/ICSI #2 - beta - 187! (9dp5dt), beta - 367! (11dp5dt)
IVF w/ICSI #3 - it's a girl!
My IF Blog: Between the Lines
My Parenting Blog: Letters From Your Mama
Re: WWYD - sick baby & travel?
I may be alone on this, but I'd probably go. He'll be upright in his car seat, so he can breathe/drain the mucous. He might actually sleep better in the car than at home...
Plus, you can always see a doc-in-a-box on the road...and he can be sick in the car just like he can be sick at home.
If you will regret missing this funeral, just go. You will have regrets/second thoughts either way...just go and mourn your grandmother. Ollie will be fine.
(((Hugs)))
and I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, thoughts and prayers extended to you.
This happened to DD... she was on amoxicillan for the 2nd time in a month and it didn't work for her. She started sleeping 16+ hours/day (this from a child who hadn't STTN more than a handful of times in her life!) and spiked a fever while on the antibiotic. We ran to the pedi in a panic and he ordered bloodwork and a chest x-ray (due to a worsening cough). The chest x-ray was negative and bloodwork showed a bacterial infecition so he switched her to zithromax which helped a ton. She was also throwing up every single time she ate which freaked us out... I called my dad (a physician) and the pedi and both agreed that it was due to a combination of her reflux and drainage.
She started getting better after a few days of the new medicine and was back to normal a few days after her last dose.
I would try calling the pedi (or on-call pedi) to see if they'll switch the antibiotic. But it's not like you'd get in to the pedi's office before Monday. If he's not getting any better, you could always take him to urgent care when you get to your destination. I would still go... you will regret it if you don't (I missed my grandma's funeral because she died the day before I went into labor with DD, and even though I had a really good reason, I still regret it!). You may just need to sit with him in the car or stop frequently, but he may actually sleep much of the way if he hasn't been sleeping well.
I'm not sure what medicine your little guy is taking now, but chances are he just needs something a bit stronger or different as my DD did. My pedi has mentioned several times that some ear infections are stubborn!
Good luck! I hope he is feeling better soon!!
I would go. Hopefully he will sleep in the car and if he ends up being too sick to go to the funeral, you can leave him at the hotel or where ever you're staying with your husband. But you want to be there and right now that is more important than an ear infection. Will it be a stressful trip? Probably. But you will regret not going so it will be worth it. Just bring some pedialyte, maybe pedialyte pops if you have somewhere to freeze them and things that Ollie is able to eat. Try to feed him small mealssnacks to help with the vomiting. Hopefully you'll both be able to get some sleep in the car (give DH tonight off from baby duty and let him drive on Sunday).
Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon though!
-----Lisa-----