You would think we would have learned by now....

So here is the final wrap up of the mystery illness that started with a limp, then a rash, then a fever of 104.

On Monday our doctor called to check on LG. I said that fever had come down and then disappeared and that she was fine except she still had the rash on her feet. The rash didn't seem worse but it wasn't better either. The doctor told me to call back if there was any change or if any additional symptoms were discovered. Turns out a fever is not a condition of HSP but constipation was and LG seemed to be suffering from a little bit of that.

When LG awoke on Tuesday morning she said that her feet were really itchy. I looked at them and they had started peeling. Since that was a change I called the doctor. Our instructions were to get a "clean catch" (get the toddler to pee in a cup) and then make an appointment. I pumped LG full of juice and then we waited for over an hour for her to finally pee. (BTW, we have now switched to underwear because apparently she is ready) Back to the doctor we go.

You know that when you walk into the doctor's office and everyone knows your name that you have been there too often. My mother compared it to walking into Cheers.

The doctor checks out LG's feet and still cannot pinpoint what on earth is going on. The urine test comes back completely clean (negative) so that rules out HSP (whew). The doctor starts looking through LG's file. Looks back at the feet. Flips through the file (which is now a complete history since all our documents have transferred).

Doctor: "So I see here that LG has some food allergies."

Me: "Yes, she is growing out of the dairy allergy and we need to be tested for peanuts and nuts again once she is 3. You don't think this could be a food reaction?"

Doctor: "No, not at all but have you ever seen her have a reaction on contact to something?"

Me: "Oh yes. I changed detergents once and it caused a horrible reaction on her skin. I had to rewash everything!"

Doctor: "Does you new home have materials in it that she is not used to?"

Me: "Yes, we have hardwood floors and we used to have wall to wall carpet and laminate. And (the light suddenly dawns) my husband started using something new to clean them the same day that the reaction started on her feet."

Doctor: "There is probably a good chance that this is contact reaction to that product. The fever was probably an unrelated virus. Still not sure about the limp.... so call if you see any additional symptoms develop."

I should have learned from our last mystery rash that my daughter has very sensitive skin (I do too). Ugh. Well at least we are friends with our new doctor now.

BTW, this is the offending product (it does have a warning on it that it is a skin irritant):
Excuse me as I go back to rewashing ALL our floors with a simple vinegar and water solution.

7 days reallly?

So remember how excited I was about this Fabulous Flower Clutch from Boden? Well I ordered it for a wedding in June. It took me a long time but I did decide to order the green floral print dress to go with it. The dress showed up right away but the clutch was on back order. Not surprising since it had been featured in a couple of magazines. I didn't think it would be an issue since I ordered in April but May came and went and I still didn't have a clutch to go with my cute green dress. The wedding was quickly approaching and honestly the dress just wasn't formal enough without dressing it up with a cool bag and shoes. Sadly I had already had the dress altered so returning it wasn't an option. In the end, I wore a different dress to the wedding and the bag arrived while I was out of town. Super helpful.

But remember how crazy things were for us in June? With the house being sold and buying a new place and then all the packing! So the purse got very lost in the shuffle. I remembered it but kept putting off returning it - a task that would have only required me to go to the post office. I had a free return deal and everything. You know I never did it.

I went to the Boden website and it says that the return policy is 7 days! SEVEN! Well that was over a long time ago.

Now this wouldn't be the a big deal if the bag was everything I was hoping for but it is NOTHING like I was hoping for - nothing. The color is off. The material is wrong. The clasp looks cheap and it is MUCH bigger than I thought it was going to be. I knew this as soon as I opened the box so I should have just packed it back up and brought it back to the post office but it was just so much easier to put it on the top shelf of a closet and deal with it later. Now it is later, much later and the clutch is still janky....

Should I sell it on eBay?

I guess we're good....

With no additional symptoms and the fever gone we are assuming that all is well. The rash is still present on her feet but it doesn't seem to be bothering her so we'll see if it heals itself.

Back to our regularly scheduled program of exploring our new town. I may eventually get my act together enough to start regularly posting but it could be awhile -- although I do have a Miley Cyrus rant worked up in my head...

How to make friends with your new pediatrician

When you take your child into the pediatrician there are lots of phrases that you do not want to hear. "Let me get a book," is one of them.

LG currently has a virus that is so strange our new doctor (I bet she loves us already) had to get out a book to look for pictures of what it might be. The short story is that we still do not know and that we need to closely monitor her.

The long story....
Last week on Monday evening LG started complaining about her knee hurting. It didn't seem to be bothering her too much so I put her to bed. The next morning she woke up and was limping. Toddlers don't generally limp so I made our first appointment with our new doctor. The doctor saw the limp but couldn't find anything else so she sent us for Xrays. 2 1/2 hours later we had negative Xray results. Whew, at least it wasn't a fracture. It would probably go away soon. We gave her some Children's Mortin and she was fine. Wednesday she wakes with pain. Mortin dose does the trick and she is happily running about. Thursday same thing. Friday same thing. I worry so I call the doctor again. She has no idea so she has us make an appointment with a Orthopedist for Monday morning. Saturday morning LG wakes up and reports that her knee no longer hurts. So we assume that is the end of it.

Later that day I notice a rash on LG's foot. She says it itches. We assume that it is athlete's foot. Though rare in toddlers, it is possible, especially when they have been going to the pool a lot. We treat accordingly and all is well.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday all is well. We are treating for athlete's foot and the situation isn't getting worse so everyone seems fine.

Thursday. Fever of 104. Sh*t. My first thought is that it must be Hand, foot, and mouth disease which is a very common viral infection in toddlers. I call the doctor and make an appointment for Friday morning (b/c I am not dragging my poor child to the doctor at 7pm at night for them to tell me that she needs rest and fluids). Shortly after I call, LG has some projectile vomit and then within 15 minutes reports that she is feeling much better and starts running around like nothing is wrong. She still will not eat but at least she can get up off the couch (which is good since she has watched 5 episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - normally we limit her to one or less a day). I contemplate canceling the appointment but decide to wait until the next morning.

Friday morning. LG is up at 1am with a high fever. Motrin. Back to bed. 7am more fever but it is too early for more Motrin so she is up and refusing all food and liquids. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse it is. We head off for the doctor. LG can barely keep her head up. Fever reads 102.

Our doctor comes in and asks about her knee. I recount the miraculous recovery and tell her about all the new symptoms. She looks at rash on LG's foot and that's when she tells us that she needs to get out some books to look at some pictures. That's right my kid has something so strange that the doctor needs a book. Where is House when you need him?

The book doesn't reveal many answers. A second doctor is called in. A strep test is conducted. Nothing. The closest match for the rash is Henoch-Schonlein Purpura (HSP) but there are a couple of inconsistencies with that diagnosis. Interestingly, HSP does tend to present with inflammation of the joints similar to arthritis so it would explain the mystery limp. Our instructions right now are rest, fluids, and oh, we have to try to get our not-quite-potty-trained 2.5 year old to pee in a cup - AWESOME that should be super neat a clean.

Here is a picture of the poor thing when she fell asleep on the floor yesterday because she was too tired to play....

Mom?!

My little darling LG has taken to calling me "Mom" as in "Please, Mom" or "Mom, come here." And can I just say that I hate it? She is only 2 1/2 years old the word Mom should not be in her vocabulary! I was totally cool (well almost totally) with the switch from Mama to Mommy (which only happened about 6 months ago) but this whole Mom thing drives me nuts.

The problem is I don't know how to correct it. I refer to myself as Mommy when appropriate but I try to avoid speaking the 3rd person so that LG will learn how to use pronouns correctly (btw, she does so I guess that worked). I don't want to flat out correct her because technically she isn't wrong. Also we shorten her name all the time so it might seem natural to her. But frankly, I hate hearing my daughter sound like a teenager.

There is something really unsettling about changing a diaper and then hearing "Thanks, Mom." Oh well, at least she is polite.

Success!

Whew, we did it.

We packed up the entire house, moved our stuff 40 minutes away, and unpacked enough of it to survive (comfortably even).

We are exhausted.

The new house is fabulous (though not with out its fun issues) and we are starting to make some furniture purchases to fill it up (we currently have 4 empty rooms - 5 if you count the eat in part of the kitchen).

So we did it; we are alive; we are tired; we have stories but they will have to wait.

Packing Up....

I gotta admit, packing isn't all that bad. I get to ORGANIZE the crap out of everything, which I love. It is a great time to take inventory. For instance, apparently I have the same cubic volume of purses, shoes, and clothing.

I also have an obscene amount of luggage. There are more bags within these bags. BTW, I don't particularly like traveling.

There are, however, some rooms that even I cannot organize. But it is nice to have a staging room that I can shut the door to when I don't feel like dealing with it.


We have already moved over a lot of the random items from the attic and our storage unit. All these items are piled up in the garage of our new house. None of these items are used more than once a year. :)