Jessica’s 9 Months!

Offered her Cream of Wheat at breakfast (a first). She took one bite and spit it out. She proceeded to scarf down a few Fruity Cheerios Ritchie picked up for her last night. After eating about ten she gagged, coughed and they all came back up. Perfect.

Called the Dr’s office to schedule an appointment. Wondered if I’d waited too long when the nurse said “Is that her I hear wheezing in the background?” Uh yeah, you can hear that?

Dr’s office called back to see if I could bring her in right away.

Changed diaper and Jess spit up the apples I’d just fed her.

Arrived at office and noticed faint smell of dirty diaper, by the time we got into the exam room and I changed the said diaper it had turned into a diarrhea blowout. (This means Jess got to wear her ghetto emergency outfit today instead of the cute onesie her Aunt Shugee got her).

A total of 3 diarrhea diapers were changed today, making our week’s tally somewhere around 21.

After changing diaper and clothes poor Jess was less than enthusiastic about having all her vitals taken but she muscled through and only tried to twist off the exam table once.

Dr. diagnoses double ear infections and inflamed bronchioles (hence the wheezing). Here are a few of the gifts he offered her on this momentous day: -2 breathing treatments -1 steroid injection -3 prescription medications

He also suggested that we continue using the humidifier and that we get an air purifier. At this point I’m starting to think of Walter on Sleepless in Seattle.

Jessica endures the needle poke just fine but squeals as the medicine goes into her little bum cheek. I don’t blame her, poor sweet girl. I nurse her when it’s over and we head to the pharmacy.

After having her Rx faxed to our pharmacy, I buy her a little teether for her troubles because in addition to her illness she’s been trying to cut her two front teeth for the last week and she’s having a struggle. It ends up she’s more interested in the packaging than the teether.

We head over to the Imaging Center because the Dr. ordered a chest xray to be sure we’re not dealing with pneumonia and to make she she’s not aspirating spit up into her lungs.

Jess does surprisingly well with the chest xray. I’m impressed with her ability to sit still especially when she feels crummy.

We head to the pharmacy (just a few minutes from our house) to pick up our stuff. Jess falls asleep so I hit the drive through.

I’m greeted with news that our insurance doesn’t cover one of the Rx and it’ll be $120. I’m about to pay it when the Pharmacist suggests I call the dr to see if a covered drug could be substituted. Because I’m an advocate for our health, I call the insurance, get details, call the Dr. office to discuss options. The Dr. suggests that I just come back and pick up some samples he has. (At this point I will admit that I was tempted to just pay the $120 so I could go through the drivethrough Pharmacy and get Jess and I home. It occurs to me that this is a ridiculous idea despite the fact that I’ve needed to go to the bathroom for the last 1.5 hours so…) we head back to the Dr. office and I wake Jess up and we go get the medicine. Amazingly true to form, she smiles at everyone we see on the way in and out of the office.

I put her in the car one more time for the ride home. I’m very grateful that I brought along our ipod and speakers so she could listen to her favorite album “Rocketship Run” throughout this ordeal because that generally calms her down. Despite the fact that she’s trying to be happy, I can tell from her glassy eyes and tired body language that she’s hurting and the last 10 minutes of the drive are pretty rough.