Monday, October 3, 2016

Week 163: Cyclone

There were no extreme weather events in Wisconsin in the past week, although you would reach the opposite conclusion if you based your analysis on the inside of my house. Luckily, Papa Bear returned home this morning so with any luck I will be able to take some corrective action over the next several days. Overall, the week of solo parenting was very busy but fun in its way. We all tried one another's patience at times, but we survived. Lemon definitely noticed Papa Bear's absence in a way that he hasn't before, and that led to some less-than-desirable behaviors. And a lot of extra laundry. Lime (aka world's biggest mama's boy) was much less affected. He mainly seemed to notice that I was more tired and had less time for him than usual, which was not to his liking. Ah well. Once I return from my 3-day spa retreat I should be good as new (wouldn't it be fun if that were reality?).

Lemon's cough appears to be fading. I don't want to get ahead of myself, since that rarely ends well, but I do think he is mostly better--certainly more of an improvement than we saw the whole time we were on levofloxacin. He is still not quite at baseline, but I would say he's 90% of the way there, and when he does cough, which is pretty infrequent now, it sounds mostly dry instead of the big wet sound he had last week. The main test will of course come in a week or so, when we come off the oral antibiotic and see what happens.

Augmentin has had a bigger effect on Lemon's digestive system, so we're being diligent with the probiotics. Of course, now that Lemon is using the potty, he likes to look at and discuss all of his byproducts, which can be pretty humorous if your sense of humor is inclined toward the scatological.
The whole fiasco with the levofloxacin dose and then the switch to augmentin does make me wonder, though--are we basically in a situation where if the antibiotic dose isn't strong enough to screw up Lemon's gut, it isn't strong enough to kill what's in his lungs? It sure seems that way, for better or worse. So I think the next time we try levofloxacin, we are going to have to really insist on the higher dose, gut be damned. And, at least at the current level of gut disruption, it doesn't seem to be causing Lemon any discomfort, so aside from things being a bit messier, it's not a huge deal.

I think that's about all the news that's fit to print this week, there may be more but I would have to have slept considerably more in the last 24 hours to remember it (oh yes, I did forget to mention that Lime now thinks it's a good idea to wake up and scream from 4-4:30, followed by his brother waking up for the day at 4:50). But, guess who's getting up with the kids tomorrow morning at whatever hour they select? Hint--it isn't going to be me!