drowning in diarrhea.

Well... its day 5 of diarrhea & it hasn't let up at all- I can't believe the poor bug has had it for this long. I had been putting off going to the doctor because I do NOT want to be that overbearing, "something is wrong with my kid" kind of mom. Remember- I had just taken her in a week or so ago for what I thought was an ear infection but turned out to be NIGHTMARES (talk about feeling like an idiot). But I'm sorry- 4 days of a fever (no matter how low grade it is) and 5 days of diarrhea warrants a trip to the doctors. Off we went this afternoon- but not before a slight crisis; Our appointment was at 4:15 and I was trying to let Maeve sleep as long as she possibly could so I timed it, to wake her up around 4, change her diaper, stick her in the car by 4:05, be at the doc. by 4:15. Unfortunately, changing her diaper wasn't a simple or quick thing by any means. I went in to get her at 4, and her room reeeeaaaaked- I knew she had pooped- but UGH this was bad. In record time, I stripped her down, stuck her under the running faucet in the bath (she was still half asleep) put a diaper on her, dressed her in a whole new outfit (since the previous one was covered in diarrhea) and had her in the car by 4:10-ish. We made it to our appointment just in time.

Unfortunately I have this terrible condition that you might have heard me talk about a time or two before, but yeah- my anxiety has been horrible lately- my mind has been creeping into these terrible thoughts of all these different things things that a fever and diarrhea could mean. I was totally prepared to hear she had the dang swine flu or something. Thankfully, her ears and throat all checked out fine- Dr. Williams also pressed on her belly- didn't faze Maeve... she also took a look at her diaper rash. The verdict? A stomach bug... OR teething. UGH I hate going to the doc and not getting a definite answer. Basically, our instructions are to treat the diaper rash with maalox & desitin, push the fluids like crazy & keep an eye on her fever- giving her the least amount of tylenol/motrin as possible. If her diarrhea hasn't cleared up by Friday, then we have to go back in for cultures- and THAT is what is scaring me to death.

At the moment, she is burning up- thankfully her temp is only 100.5. I've woken her up twice to try to get her to drink some gatorade... no success :( I'm about to put it in a syringe... and shoot it directly into her mouth- seriously if you guys saw the amount of diarrhea that is coming out of her you'd be desperate to get SOMETHING fluid-like in her. The saddest thing is that she is just SO not herself... she's sluggish, tired and whiny. All she wants to do is watch t.v- she actually says "T- VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV!" and then climbs into bed under the covers. I never knew how painful it is to watch your child be sick and uncomfortable. Again, I'm counting my blessings that Maeve *hopefully* just has some bug or is teething- and is not seriuosly ill. I can't imagine being the mom of a kid with cancer or some other horrific disease. Okay... that's enough of me getting emotional about Maeve's diarrhea... see what preggo hormones do?????

Wish Maeve luck that her diarrhea clears up though- we (I am pretty sure I can speak for her on this one) REALLY don't want to get any cultures done or end up in the hospital for dehydration... UGH.