Ear Infection and Cough

Before I get to the obvious content of this post- take a look at the dress Tehilla wore today. When I came to pick Tehilla up from school, her teacher asked me why I did not send her in white and blue as had been requested for the school Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) today. I said, "There is white and blue on her dress..." Her teacher said, "Come on...you know what I mean..."

I said, "Betty, I know what you mean but you don't understand what I mean. I mean that was all the blue and white you were going to get Tehilla to agree to. And that means it comes with a healthy helping of pink too. She wouldn't hear of anything else, and this was not the battle I was fighting this morning."

When I picked Tehilla up from school, her color looked off and she felt warm. When I checked her temperature it was just a few decimal points away from a fever and I was not willing to wait to get stuck without a doctor over Yom Ha'atzmaut.

So we saw the doctor on call tonight who immediately saw that Tehilla has a very bad ear infection and could hear her cough and associated it with a post nasal drip. Because she has been taking antibiotics about every two weeks,  he prescribed her a very strong medication to hopefully get rid of these bacteria that seem to be lingering.

Let's hope it helps and she can stay healthy. 

Spring/Summer Begins

Spring, but more like summer, has started in full blast. With the heat comes our new experience of watching how Tehilla's well adjusted post- Fontan heart handles the heat. I can already see a noticeable improvement in handling the heat. While she still gets sweaty fast it is not to the degree it was. This shows on a very basic level the improvement of her heart function.

Tehilla was Ima shel Shabbat! And from 6:00am until we got her to school that was all she talked about.  She loved every second of it and insisted that we call her Ima all weekend long.

Her cough came back on Thursday. I started doing some DIY home improvements and caused a lot of dust in the air. I'm hoping that's what caused it and not that the cough we just got rid of 2 weeks ago has come back. If it is not gone in another day or two or fever starts, then we will go back to the doctor.

Other than that, everyone is doing well.

Enjoy the pictures!

The Rest of Pesach

The rest of Pesach was very nice and filled with a lot of family time and some fun outings. Within 2-3 days of Tehilla taking the antibiotics, her cough completely went away and she was back to her normal self.

We spent a day at the park and playing locally and on the Friday, we took the kids to a strawberry farm in Hod Hasharon. It was an incredible experience for all of us. We paid an entrance fee and were given 3 cartons for filling up with strawberries, as well as the ability to eat as many strawberries as we wanted while walking around.

The kids ate more than their weight's worth in strawberries and had the greatest time tasting from the 3 different strains of strawberries. We also picked flowers in the flower gardens and Tehilla did everything she could to get one of every colors. Then she realized that she loved pink too much and should have only picked pink flowers.

It was a wonderful experience and we will definitely be going back in the future. Just watching our 3 kids, in the sun, searching for that perfect strawberry, while hopping around through the strawberry plantings- it gave us great joy and we felt completely blessed, once again, to have the ability to enjoy these moments.

Here are some of the photos. Enjoy!

Medicated

Pesach seder night was incredible fun that was mixed with a still feverish Tehilla and persistent coughing. We were up throughout the night with her coughing and when her fever returned in the morning, we started Tehilla on antibiotics.

Within 24 hours, her fevers finally stopped and she overall looks less sick. Her coughing fits are still happening frequently.

She was well enough this morning to go to one of her favorite places- the zoo! She had a great time and enjoyed every minute of it. She fell asleep on the way home and napped a very long time.

It seems that Tehilla is on the mend with the antibiotics. Thank g-d.

Pesach Ahoy

Tehilla has not improved and gave us a very rough night.  She still has fever today, so tomorrow unless things change we are treating this like pneumonia.

She is well enough for us to stick to our Pesach plans and enjoy seder in Bet Shemesh.

During one of her inhalations,  I brought up her birthday party in October in an effort to distract her...it resulted in 12 hours of non-stop talk of pink princesses and pink castle cakes. Now, all she keeps talking about is going to her cousins.

So Pesach ahoy! Wishing our entire blog family a happy and enjoyable holiday! 

Wait and See

Tehilla had a blood count done this morning which came back fairly normal. The doctor decided against a chest x-ray because Tehilla has had a crazy amount of x-rays in the course of all of her treatment.

But we were told to start antibiotics if her fever isn't gone in 2 days or if she becomes lethargic.

Right now she goes between not doing well and tons of energy. So fingers crossed...

Pesach Prep

With our home all ready for Pesach and our plans all set, our family in town and everything ready to go, what could possibly go wrong? What would we have to worry about? It seems like life would possibly be boring...

No worries. Tehilla thought of a great way to keep us busy around the clock. Thursday evening she started with a slight cough that very quickly turned into a viral upper respiratory infection. She also hurt her eye when something flew into it and she rubbed it incessantly. So Friday morning we were at our doctor. She received drops for her eye and she was checked thoroughly because of her cough. But it was nothing more than a cough. 

All of Shabbat her cough got worse and she developed a fever. I started her on Mucolit and saline inhalation to loosen the mucus she was choking on. I monitored her oxygen saturation which was 82-91 (amazing for her!). She seemed to improve. 

Our doctor made a house call tonight to check on her. Her chest sounds clear and her oxygen levels are great. He is concerned because she has had coughs off and on for over a month. He is sending us for a blood test in the morning and then depending on the results, a chest x-ray as well to rule out pneumonia. 

So...we are keeping it busy around here. Here is a picture from Tehilla's school Pesach party.