STREP: Fall 2013 Edition

For the love of all things holy, how does this bacteria make its way into our household every time the wind changes direction?

It actually looks intriguing in the above photo, doesn't it? Kind of pretty...kind of soft...tart, even, like little raspberries.....

STREP is evil, evil, evil, and not even remotely as sweet as a raspberry!

Gage...so he had strep first. Remember, within the past year, he's had his tonsils and adenoids out. We were hoping this would help things with regard to his repeated bouts of strep throat. Well....it did help, kind of. Gage came down with a fever and coughing just a few days before we were set to go on a big trip. We ended up at Urgent Care. One throat swab later: strep. "You've got to be kidding me!" Gage now LOVES strep. Why? Because now when he gets strep, he no longer has the sore throat. He gets fever and a cough. When those go away, he's still probably contagious, but he feels great.

About 10 days later, Eliette came down with strep. Interesting thing I learned from the doctor: it's very uncommon for infants to get strep throat. Hmmm....turns out, it's not uncommon at all for MY children to get it. Is this the first of many times with strep, like her brother? Goodness, I hope not! Anyway....it all started with fever. Thought it was teething. It wasn't too bad....then, I noticed that her breath smelled sour and her fever shot up. Off to the doctor we went. Strep (+), another "you've got to be kidding me!", and Eliette's first round of antibiotics. Yuck.

Which brings me to another subject.... babies and antibiotics. UGH.
She's had GI motility issues, but let me tell you----those antibiotics send us to the other end of that spectrum. Her poor little chapped behind! Then, the yeast rash that can set in.... We've gone back and forth between regular diaper rash cream and Lamisil (per the dr), and it's taken weeks to get things in order down there.

I HATE STREP.
STUPID, STUPID, STUPID STREP.