Fun with Childhood illnesses

Two weeks ago Friday, M went to the pediatrician for his well-child check. All good except that his tonsils are huge. They always have been but this time his ped wanted him to go see an ENT to look at them. Since our deductible is HUGE, I put it off.

Two weeks ago Sataurday, Z came down with an obvious classic case of strep. Fever. Sore throat. Big nap on a Saturday. So down to the express care for a culture and a course of amoxicillan.

I kept waiting for M to get it because he always does when it's going around. But two weeks pass and I began to think we had managed to dodge it this time. I finally schedule an appointment with the ENT for Friday (yesterday) because M has been stuffy, but not obviously sick, for about a month. I figured it was allergies (praying it's dust and pollan and not the cat), but since he needed to have his tonsils checked out anyway, I figured I'd just bite the bullet and get it all checked out.

Thursday M wakes up and says "My throat feels weird". I ask if it hurts-no, not really. Does it hurt when you swallow? No, just feels weird. I take his temp-normal. He eats breakfast and heads to school. About 11:30 I get a call because he forgot his library book. I ask if his throat still feels weird. Yep, but it doesn't hurt. I make the executive decision to pull him out of school and go get him tested for strep. I check the back of his throat, bright red and patchy. Another trip to the express care, another positive culture, another round of amoxicillan. And to top it off, two ear infections brewing. Nice. And all he says is his throat feels weird.

Dr. says he's fine for school the next day, so off he goes. But today he's added a major gooey nose. I pick him up early and head to the ENT. He takes one look at his tonsils and says, schedule the surgery, sooner than later. Not only will it help him not get strep 2-3 times every year, but he should sleep a whole lot better and that should help his anxiety level come down a bit. And by the way, he has chronic sinitis, not allergies, which the amoxicillan won't touch. So another trip to the pharmacy, a new antibiotic, and I've dropped over $200 on strep throat this month. Ouch!

So I'm trying to figure out the best time to take little Einstein out of school for 10 days. He was initially freaking out about the idea of surgery, but the promise of 10 days of no school, TV, Playstation and ice cream seems to have comforted him quite a bit. Plus a friend at school told him that it really wasn't that bad. I'm thinking the week before Thanksgiving because those two weeks are a joke anyway with all the short days and days off.

I don't even want to know what the surgery will cost. We may actually meet our deductible this year. At least it's tax deductible, right?