Monday, January 10, 2011

Carter, I'm sorry for my genes.

This weekend, we paid another visit to our favorite urgent care. I don't say that sarcastically, our family really does have a favorite urgent care. We've learned that they can do x-rays onsite, run labs, send prescriptions directly to the pharmacy of your choice, and the nurses pretty much know us by name these days.

Carter, my sweet, wild, energetic boy, is less than genetically blessed in a few ways. All of these are my fault. Included on the list of things I passed down are ridiculously sensitive skin, allergies, fair skin bordering on albinism, and sensitivity to medication. That last one has caused his to react to his vaccines EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Not sure if you know this, but small children get a lot of vaccines. 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months...  I'm pro vaccine (and going to cut off that rabbit hole before it sucks me in) but I still can't stand seeing my little baby so miserable. My pediatrician had told me at 15 months that "almost no one" reacts to those shots and she would be even more shocked if he reacted to the set at 18 months. She even deferred one of the 18 month ones to the 2 year appointment just in case. Still, at 15 months, he had the characteristic fever and misery. At 18 months (which had to be rescheduled on account of the pneumonia), he seemed fine for a few hours. He seemed okay the next morning, but I still gave him a little tylenol and sent him off the school. And then I got the call from daycare that he woke up from his nap seeming miserable and a little warm. We took it easy that night and gave him some more tylenol and figured it would pass.

It didn't exactly pass. In fact, his vaccine site became infected to the point where he wouldn't walk on his leg at all, resulting in another trip to urgent care and another round of antibiotics.

That's my boy.

No comments:

Post a Comment