Tip Toe Injury

I'm not saying that I'm better than everyone because I didn't get antibiotics, but I am going to say that whatever illness we had this summer was a doozy. And I didn't get antibiotics.

I was violently coughing for a month. But I didn't use antibiotics to help me get better.

I think antibiotics are useful—a miracle, even! 

When we put Alexander...and then Phoebe...on antibiotics for their double ear infections this summer they immediately (within 24 hours) started to feel better. And their ears cleared up. And they went back to being bright and happy children who could hear and everything. 

A miracle of modern medicine. 

Miriam got sick the same time I did, like...really sick. Everyone got sick in early June. But Miriam and I got really sick. And then everyone got better...except for Miriam and me. And we took Miriam to the doctor to see if she could get some help kicking this bug because she had her trip to the UK she wanted to be healthy for. They decided it sounded like a viral infection that had perhaps turned bacterial (I understand that a virus can't turn into a bacteria, but a bacterial infection is not uncommon to encounter after a viral infection), they put her on antibiotics...and she started feeling better. 

And then Phoebe and Alexander got really sick while the girls were in Europe, I believe. 

And then Rachel and Andrew got sick after they got back from Europe. Or Rachel did. And then Zoë and Benjamin got sick...right before their county meet. And then Andrew got sick. 

I don't remember when everyone got sick. I was a mess taking everyone (except Benjamin) to the doctor...one by one...as they fell like flies. 

"And when did their symptoms begin?"

"Right...so...let's see...it must have been...uhhhh..."

Look—I didn't know there'd be a quiz! 

(I have calendaring issues!)

All I knew is that we had been sick for forever. And that we waited so long to take Alexander and Phoebe in that the doctor gave me stink eye about them both having double ear infections (which aren't even contagious, but I think this virus just caused a lot of blockage in the sinus region that their little ears couldn't even handle—plus I don't even know why she was so miffed about it because we brought Phoebe and Alexander in together initially...and Alexander had visible infection in both ears and Phoebe had fluid—not infected—which turned into an ear infection over the weekend...so we ended up having to bring her in twice...which meant double the co-pay...). When Zoë started complaining about her ears I took her in right away—no infection. Whatever. 

And then Rachel eventually went in because she had had a bad sinus infection at the beginning of the year and the doctor was like, "Why did you wait so long to come in?"

And antibiotics helped her...but I think Andrew went in before Rachel so...

I'm not really clear on things. Benjamin got super sick and even threw up...but then got better really fast. 

And just when we thought everyone had been through it...Miriam got super sick again. 

That had me really worried that I was going to get sick again as well and I was was almost crying thinking about it because I had only just stopped coughing when she got sick a second time. But so far, so good. 

My whole theory is just that because I was so sick for so long, my body was creating a ton of antibodies so I had longer immunity to whatever this thing was...and Miriam (who had used outside help fighting this illness) caught it again when she was exposed to it because she didn't have to make as many antibodies herself. 

But I am not an immunologist, so I could have this all wrong.

Whatever the case, we're all mostly healthy. Andrew is still coughing a bit. 

And...I mentioned an adventure with the fire alarm the night before Zoë's county swim meet...well, let me briefly tell you that story: the fire alarm in our bedroom went off in the middle of the night.

These fire alarms are touchy. 

I remember when I worked at the BYU library helium balloons weren't allowed inside because they'd set off the smoke alarms if they drifted up to the ceiling and then the sprinklers would come on and...it was a whole thing.

Our fire alarms are that touchy. 

A piece of dust blows across the sensor and it's like, "Oh, no—you guys!!!"

I mean, we always check for fire when the alarm goes off...but it's pretty easy to tell whether or not the room is smokey. If there is smoke...smokey. If there is not smoke...not smokey. 

So the alarm went off in the middle of the night. Phoebe was in bed with me (long Phoebe night) so I clamped my hands over her ears while Andrew struggled out of the recliner to grab the fire alarm from the ceiling. 

He was sleeping in the recliner to keep him upright a bit...because he was sick and coughing a lot. 

And even though he was sick and I was not, it just made more sense for him to get up and grab the smoke detector because...he can just reach up and grab it. I would have had to go find a stool to use, etc. etc. It would have been a whole production. It's much faster when he just...does it. 

As he was reaching up for the smoke alarm he...developed a Charlie horse in his calf. 

But he had to power through and stretch to grab the smoke alarm (if only he were 6 feet tall, rather than 5'11"!). He twisted it off its...holder part...and crumpled to the floor. 

The alarm usually stops if you wave it around a little bit (the alternative is waving a towel in front of it, I guess, but that involves finding a towel and is never as effective as waving the detector itself), so it soon quieted and Andrew crawled back to the chair and went back to sleep. 

The (clock) alarm went off super early in the morning (when it was still dark—rude!) so we got up and dragged all the kids (who were coming to the meet) out of bed, and headed off to Georgia Tech for Zoë's first-thing-in-the-morning swim meet. And everything was fine...

...until we stood up to go. 

That's when Andrew discovered that his foot had swelled right up. He'd clearly injured it in the night, but because he'd been sleeping with his head and feet elevated, it didn't swell until he had been sitting for several hours in the stands.

He limped back to the car...and went to the doctor on...Monday morning...maybe? I can't remember. Whatever the case, they ended up giving him some antibiotics because he had a fever and was coughing so disgustingly. But they thought his foot probably wasn't broken—it just needed rest, ice, and elevation. 

So he did that for a few days and it started feeling better...and then things got worse and worse and worse...

This past Sunday he could hardly stuff his foot into his shoe, so he made an appointment with the doctor for Monday morning and went in again. He was worried he perhaps had a micro-fracture or something. Clearly his foot wasn't healing.

The x-ray revealed that he didn't have a fracture—that's good! But he did strain a tendon on the side of his foot, and that's what was causing all the tenderness. 

So the doctor was like, "We can give you a brace here..." and even let Andrew try it on to show him how good the extra support would feel. "But it'll cost you $140 with insurance. Or," and here they brandished a printout from Amazon, "You could simply order this one online for $30 and it will do the same thing."

Guess what we decided to do?

It arrived on our doorstep Monday afternoon and Andrew has felt much more mobile with it on his foot. It's helping his tendon rest while still allowing Andrew to amble. 

I always appreciate it when doctors are willing to stick it to the insurance companies—like, my level of trust goes way up!

I hate medical bills (they enrage me) and we are dealing with so many right now. It's not even that anything has been terribly expensive...because we have good insurance. But, it's been like $25 for each sick visit we've done (8 of them, I think, between sickness and tip toe stuff—which adds up fast). And then the doctors insisted that the kids be tested for strep (even though I assured them that it wasn't strep because we had so many symptoms that didn't indicate strep—postnasal drip, coughing, the fact that they tested a couple of kids and they didn't have strep...so why test the rest of 'em?).

Because they must. That's why. Because insurance won't cover other things until strep is ruled out. 

Well, insurance—you're dumb because I am intimately familiar with strep and can pretty much rule that out on my own (especially after a number of my kids test negative, like...come on...we have to test the rest of them, too).

That was $11 per kid (for us; evidently our insurance paid another part that bill). 

And of course that bill came separately from our co-pay bill (which they don't always let me pay at the office).

I thought we were in the clear, but no...because in addition to the rapid tests they also sent our swabs off to be cultured. So then the lab wanted $4.68 per kid (or something ridiculously petty like that) only they would send me a text like, "You have a bill due. Click here to pay." And then I would have to enter the invoice number (given in the text) along with my child's birthday. The only problem was, there was no way for me to tell which child each bill was for, so it was a process of elimination and took me several tries to get to logged in each time they sent me a bill. 

Because of course all these bills come individually and have to be paid individually. 

I think I've paid like 15 separate medical bills this week alone (because everything is billed separately, per item, per child, which seems...massively inefficient). 

When I took Rachel in for her appointment I practically begged them not to do a strep test on her. They said they had to. And then said, "But I think you're right—there's no chance of it being strep given your family's recent history, so we'll just do a rapid culture here and then I'll...forget...to send it to the lab."

Bless you. 

So I appreciated that. And I appreciated the fact that the doctor gave us a "possible" prescription for Zoë (when she had sore ears that hadn't progressed to a full infection) to call in if we needed it (which we didn't), instead of making us come back (as they did for Phoebe). And I appreciated the doctor being honest about the cost of the foot brace (because when Miriam broke her arm, we went in for a check up and the doctor was like, "What an uncomfortable sling. Here—this one is much better." And we were like, "Cool, thanks." And then we got a bill for like $200...when we could have simply purchased it at the pharmacy for, like, $10...so no thank you after all). 

Yes, I'm pretty happy with our medical system here in the United States...whenever I'm not using it.

At least we've been having fun joking about Andrew's "tip toe injury."