Swelling

We are currently in a state of craziness. I feel like I need to find a place for the dry erase board so I can keep track of Nate's medicines...What you say? Why is Nate on medicines (plural!) Yesterday I noticed his hand was red and swollen. He didn't seem much bothered by it, so I called my Mom (it was after 5) sadly she was at Happy Hour with her friends and didn't hear her cell. (HI MOM!) Have I mentioned we don't have Dr's here yet? And, we are currently on Cobra from Eric's old job, so I don't really know what his plan will be for the new job, and didn't want to hassle with getting a Dr to find the new plan doesn't like that Dr! So, I have procrastinated, so unlike me. LOL! ;)
Oh yes, back the swollen hand. Of course, I don't know why the hand is swelling, I assume it is from a bug bite, but I notice a brown spot in the hand so I call a Dr's office here, but not thinking I tell her we are not a patient so she told me I had to do some stuff before I they can give me advice. I then called the nurse from the old practice, who tells me basically not to worry about it, if after 4 days he is still swollen, then he needs to be seen. I do nothing, since well, that is the kind of Mom I am, its time for dinner, Eric isn't home yet. So we start eating dinner.
Eric gets home, we talk about the hand, he wants to start giving meds, its not bothering Nate in the least and it doesn't appear to be swelling anymore, I think its best not to overreact and not give drugs when they are not needed. But, I decided to appease Eric and ask the opinion of the Mom of 6 kids across the street...(her husband is a radiologist and I think he thought I wanted his opinion, but I really wanted hers, how can he help me!? He's not a pediatrician!) The neighbor and husband think not to worry, but maybe give tylenol to see if that helps any, and they send me home with some. So we give Nate some Tylenol and put him to bed.
Today, we get up and the hand appears to have swollen a little more, but that brown spot on his hand, really his wrist, seems to be bigger and now I notice that it is bumpy and has a little drop of clear liquid on that area, oh and it is hard to the touch. This is when I think he needs to be seen, so I call our nurse from our insurance. After about 30 min of questioning she thinks he needs to be seen, she recommends urgent care. I decide to go through the rigmarole of the getting a patient ID and seeing the peditrician I have heard about. (Urgent care with 2 children 1 coming up on naptime, no thank you!) The Dr's office has an appt available before naptime and in 30min, so we rush over there and get him seen. The office was nice, the people where nice and I liked that the floors in the exam room where linoleum instead of carpet! The Dr suspects it is a bug bite, but he is having an allergic reaction and that it is possibly infected. She wants me to keep a careful eye on it because an infection in someone so young can move pretty quickly. If it looks worse tomorrow he has to be seen and if it doesn't start looking better by Friday he has to be seen. Blech! Sadly, he has to be on antibiotics 4/day and benadryl every 6hrs. Talk about figuring out a schedule. The antibiotics are every 4 hrs and benadryl every 6! Fortunately I don't have to wake him up for either.
Did I mention he also got in a bottom molar, and the hand he chews on for that is the swollen hand. Plus when we got home from dr's office picking up meds, Gwen kindly hit him with the car door so now his head also has a swollen bump! Lovely! I know how to party. Also, the meds say can cause headache or dizziness how am I supposed to figure that out? Hopefully he doesn't have any adverse reactions, I think this is the first time either of my kids has had antibiotics. Oh and the little man is up to 23.5lbs! Almost 1lb from his 12 month, although they weigh the kids fully clothed. And the hand swelling has not appeared to affect him adversely, read: he is still getting into everything!