Sicky Maya

Poor Maya is sick today, as in she has a fever that is ranging from 100-102. Not fun. I can't even remember thelast time she had a fever like this. Maybe never. The girl is perpetually healthy with the exception of being prone to skin ailments.

We went to one of her closest friend's birthday parties today, and Maya spent practically the whole time lying in the yard watching to other kids play. She said she wasn't feeling great but wanted to stay until the birthday cake was served. At birthday cake time, she felt hot. She said she wanted to go home and have a rest.

When we got her home, her temperature was about 100. We gave her baby Tylenol. A couple hours later her fever was 102. We gave more tylenol. She slept all afternoon in my arms. She was totally miserable. Wouldn't eat. A friend (who is also a nurse) suggested motrin or ibuprofin to alternate with the tylenol.

In the evening, we woke her up (still hot and miserable) and gave her motrin. We tried and failed to persuade her to take a bath, compromised with a wet washcloth on her head and put her to bed. About half an hour later though she got up out of bed completely wired, her fever gone, wanting to eat and play. Wow! That motrin really worked.

Flu

So I think I actually had the flu -- for the first time in my life that I am aware of. And maybe a chest infection or something on top of it. It has been like 10 days since I first got sick and I am still pretty weak. I am doing better though and have been back at work for three days. The first day was rough but now I am better. I just can't wait until I'm 100 percent again.

For a while I was actually looking up the human symptoms of bird flu -- since it is endemic now in Egypt and all. I definitely don't have bird flu. But I can't believe I was sick enough to consider it!

Health update

I'm still sick today, but feeling way better than yesterday. I think the antibiotics are kicking in. I actually was able to sleep all night long. From 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., and then again until 6:30 a.m. when I took my next dose of meds. I still barely have the energy to walk around the house, but now I can at least breathe through my mouth without sparking a huge coughing fit. And I am starting to be able to breathe through my nose again a little. I doubt I will be going to work tomorrow still, but maybe on Tuesday. I am dying for some human contact.

Maya has been very nice and cuddly with me since I have been sick. She fell asleep in my arms last night watching Happy Feet. (Mike bought her Happy Feet at Carrefour and a set of cheap plastic bowling pins over the weekend, which made me raise my eyebrows a little -- until he told me he was just trying to divert her attention from the Barbie doll she asked for... Yikes!)

A Day with a Girl with Bronchitis

First, we slept in until 1 p.m. due to our middle of the night trip to the emergency room. When we woke up and got dressed, Maya watched a Barney video. She is wearing her fire hat as a prop for the "silly hat" song. Earlier, she had also decided to play doctor with the stethoscope.

Next, Maya asked to have her nails painted with polish, so we had a little spa time. It was a big treat for her.

She also painted daddy's toenails, and his fingernails, and part of her toy kitchen (not pictured). We had to order out for some nail polish remover.

After the spa treatment, Maya asked to go swimming at the club. We decided that there would be no swimming within the first 12 hours after an emergency room visit. So I offered to make brownies. Maya said she wanted to make cookies. But we had no cookie mix, and there was no way I was going to make cookies from scratch, especially since we have no chocolate chips. So we offered to walk to the store (a 5-minute walk) to get some cookie mix. But the store was out of cookie mix, so instead I got Maya a new pair of purple flip flops. That made her very happy and she forgot all about the cookies, which were only a second choice to the pool anyway. We came home and made slushies instead, then ate them on the balcony.

My question is this. The doctor said she can't go play outdoors or swim until her antibiotics are finished. Then he put her on a 7-10 day course of drugs. I want to know is he kidding about this? There is no way I can keep Maya at home all day tomorrow...

EDIT: Mike asks. How is it that my 2-1/2 year old with bronchitis has WAY more energy than I do?

Maya has bronchitis

Maya has had a low grade fever on and off for the past two days. It didn't stop her from going to the zoo yesterday with Tibby,as she had been begging to "go to the farm and see the elephant". So when her fever appeared to have disappeared yesterday morning we agreed to let her go to the zoo. She loved it. But by evening her low grade fever was back. She was still in high spirits though and had energy. So we put her to bed.

About 3 a.m. Maya woke up and seemedto be having trouble breathing. She had short, shallow breaths and complained of generic pain in her belly, though we could not figure out what part of her belly. After about half an hour up with her, her breathing had not improved, and she was unable to take a deep breath, or at least was not cooperating with our requests. She was in a good mood though, singing songs to us through her shallow breaths.

But since Maya is almost never sick, we were a bit freaked out. Well, actually, I think I was the one freaked out. I was thinking, maybe she had appendicitis and the pain was causing her to take shallow breaths. Or maybe it was a collapsed lung or something. Or maybe she had ingested something that was partly blocking her windpipe.

So we got dressed and drove to the emergency room, where for some reason the doctors seemed to think she was a boy. Hello!! She doesn't look like a boy at all! Anyway, they gave her a chest X-ray and a brief examination and diagnosed her with a chest infection, or a minor case of bronchitis. They prescribed us some antibiotics and we were on our way home at 5 a.m.

Maya was super. She cooperated very well on the X-ray, which we told her was a big camera that would take a picture of the inside of her belly. She didn't like it much, and was crying a bit. But she did stay still for the X-ray. Later, though, she did not want the doctor touching her with his stethoscope. But in the end it worked out, and now we are back at home.

I love Cipro!

I mean, I REALLY love Cipro. About two hours after taking Cipro I could already feel the effects, though I am not completely ruling out that it could partly be the whole placebo effect thing. It could be that I felt better with the idea that I had taken cipro. But still, today, I feel so much better.

It is also really convenient that when I want cipro, I can just pick up the phone and call a pharmacy and ask for it. No need to leave my house. The pharmacy will deliver. And no need for a prescription either. I just name the dosage I want, and it's mine. Plus, Egyptian drugs are really inexpensive. It was less than $12 for supply of 20 pills that will last 10 days. Awesome! (And by the way, that's on the pricey side here).

I also just want to note that we NEVER self-medicate Maya, in case you're wondering or worried... except for Tylenol of course.

Sick Sick Sick Sick

That's four days of being sick for me. I have the works, everything imaginable. So annoying that I am sick too, and that one of my days of sickness had to fall on a day off from work. Grrrr....

I keep thinking I am getting better too, and then I feel worse again. Fever, vomiting, stomach cramps, bloating, gas, extreme fatigue, etc, etc. So frustrating. And I'm bored out of my mind. And even though Tibby is at home with Maya, the girlie just thinks I should play with her. And I want to. But I can barely make it from bed to sofa without stopping for a break in between. Ok, well today was a little better actually. But still I don't feel right.

So after four days I am doing some internet research to try to figure out what I have. At first I thought it was a virus, but no one else close to me is sick at all so I kind of doubt that it is a virus.

I think it is probably not an amoeba like giardia or e hystolica (which I had a few years ago). Mainly because I am vomiting, which is really rare for me (haven't vomited since we were in Ethiopia adopting Maya 2.5 years ago). And I don't think amoebas typically cause lots of vomiting.

That leaves food poisoning, gastroenteritis type of illness. I was actually looking up Salmonella poisoning and it is a definite maybe. Or e coli. Or some other similar nasty bug. And I have told Mike that I think the blueberries we bought are my main suspects. He denies this, saying that they couldn't be, as he and Maya also had blueberry pancakes and didn't get sick. But I am still highly suspicious. I am keeping my options open regarding the rest of the blueberries in our freezer.

Anyway. Tonight I am going to self-medicate. With cipro! Hope it works.

Allergy Rerun...

I am a little worried that we were overly optimistic in saying that Maya has grown all her allergies from babyhood. As a baby and young toddler, Maya had allergies to wheat, all berries and guava. But by about 18 months, and definitely by age 2, she had outgrown every single one of those allergies.

We delayed introducing some other common allergens, like peanuts, shellfish and tree nuts. But then one day Maya got ahold of a peanut butter granola bar and started sucking on it. No reaction. So we figured we were in the clear for nuts, and we started letting her have foods that have trace amounts of peanuts in them. Again, no problem. We are still avoiding shellfish until age 3...

Anyway, today Maya tried a piece of walnut. I figured it would be OK as she has had other similar stuff, like sesame seeds and pine nuts, with no reaction. She chewed the walnut a little, but didn't like it and spit it out. Then she went down for her nap. When I went in to her room to get her after she woke up, I was greeted with a 2-year-old with two black eyes. I felt her belly and felt the telltale bumpy skin. These were the exact same reactions she had to berries and wheat early on. But the strange thing is that the reaction to walnuts faded quickly. It was almost completely gone within several hours. Her previous reactions had stayed for up to a week. So I am not sure how to interpret it, whether it is a real allergic reaction or not. I guess we will ask Maya's doctor when we go home to the U.S. for home leave, but that is not until sometime this summer. Until then, well, let's just say we'll be avoiding walnuts...

False alarm!!

Woo Hoo! It's a false alarm. Maya's friend doesn't have chicken pox after all!! Well, I don't know if that makes his life any better, since he's still itchy with a rash. But the good news is he's not contagious so he will be going to music class tomorrow and Maya will get to play with him!

Chicken Pox Scare

Guess what's going around Cairo! Chicken pox!

We just had our first chicken pox scare!! Aaaaah! It turns out one of Maya's closest friends has just come down with chicken pox. He was apparently just days away from getting the immunization when he broke out in spots. Poor boy!

Anyway, his mom called me to let me know what was going on and to check whether Maya had had the vaccine. I couldn't remember and had to summon Mike to look in her vaccination records. Fortunately, we found Maya's records, and she had the vaccine a year ago!

It doesn't mean she can't get chicken pox. I looked it up on the CDC website! But the chances of her catching chicken pox from this exposure are pretty low, and if she does catch it, she will likely only have a minor case. We will know for sure we are home free in a week or so... But in the meantime, please send Maya some special vibes to ward off chicken pox! Oh, and also please send some special vibes for her friend that he feels better soon!

Guess who's sick today?

Maya is sick. Poor baby. I think this is the first time she has had anything more than a morning of sniffles since we arrived in Cairo well over a year ago. She woke up about 6 a.m. gagging, and then threw up in the bathroom. Afterward she told me: "Mommy, I cough". I thought that was very cute, but a bit pitiful.

After vomiting, she then proceeded to go back to sleep until 10 a.m. Mike went in to work a little late because Maya, before falling asleep, said she wanted us to stay with her. Anyway, at about 10 a.m. she woke up and wanted to play and had some yoghurt and a banana. So Tiberh came and Mike went to work. But apparently Maya still didn't feel well and slept on and off all day and had a couple small vomits during the day. I wonder if she got a bit of food poisoning, as she doesn't seem to have a fever.

When I came home at 4:30 p.m. she was still sleeping. I hope she feels better tomorrow.