Sick

Oye...It's crazy. Ruby has been consistently sicker this week than when she was going through chemo. How is that possible? (Actually, parents of kids who have fought cancer would not be surprised.)

Ruby has been on and off congested a lot this spring, due to pollen/allergies. At one point they worried she would develop an ear infection, so they gave her antibiotics (April). This week, she ran two random fevers that went away with one dose of Tylenol, not to return until the following day at fever o'clock (that's 5PM). After two days in a row of that, coupled with her sleeping in (unlike Ruby), I took her to her pediatrician's office Thursday morning. They confirmed that her lungs sounded fine, and her ears were clear, but with the blood tinged nose-mucus and puffy eyes, they suspected a sinus infection.

So now she's been on an antibiotic for exactly 48 hours, but it's not helping yet. Poor girl had a fever again Thursday night that took a long time to break, and she had the crazy chills/shivers at one point. Friday morning she slept in (again..third day in a row), and her poor eyes were puffy from tearing up all night. The good news is, they aren't pink-eye looking (infected), and she doesn't appear to be getting worse.

I did call the pediatrician again yesterday to inquire if we should come back in. They assured me that she needed a few days of antibiotics under her belt to see an improvement. If she is still not turning around by Monday, come in. Her energy is down, but she has spurts through the day where she acts fine, plays like her usual self, and (until yesterday around noon), ate at least as well as usual.

This feels all kinds of crazy...Ruby's already been sick a few times since her short time of being in remission. Her immune system numbers have always registered in the 'good' range since we were released, but during this allergy season, she's had to be on an antibiotic twice. My NOT-medically-educated self tells me that the overload of mucus from pollen season is overloading her system with yuck, helping things to develop into infections. That doesn't help us as we watch our poor girl with puffy eyes so miserable. And here's the thing, even though she sailed through chemo, and even though she is amazingly strong, what she's been through has messed  with her immune system and it's ability to react efficiently and 'normally'. So for our girl, I guess it's still not over.