Drew's ENT Appointment

I'm sure everyone is dying to know how Drew's ENT appointment went. When I last wrote, she had 3 confirmed strep throat cases with 3 rounds of increasingly stronger antibiotics. 

She finished her 3rd round of antibiotics on June 2, and I had already scheduled an ENT appointment for June 7. Monday morning, June 4, Drew told me her throat hurt. ARE YOU SERIOUS? So back to the pediatrician we went for a 4th positive strep test. The pediatrician suggested we do a penicillin shot, and I agreed. If the strongest antibiotics they'd prescribed couldn't keep her clear of strep for even 48 hours, we needed to do something. Poor baby had a rough appointment - she hates the throat swab, so to have that AND a painful shot in the same appointment - NOT okay in her book. It took me and another nurse to hold her down for the shot, and she was so angry at me afterward, she wouldn't let me hold or snuggle her. She also got herself so worked up she gave herself 2 nosebleeds.

I promised her Starbucks AND a toy. We got Starbucks Tuesday morning and ordered an Aurora play-doh set from Amazon. #suckerforsickbabies

Yes, Drew's wearing the same clothes - we love summer!

Thursday we had her ENT appointment, and Dr. Connolly gave us a lot of good information! He said he's seen people have strep in a random cluster and then not again for a long time. He's also seen people be carriers of strep and test positive on an office rapid test {which just tests for the presence of the bacteria but can't distinguish having the bacteria with having an infection} when they don't truly have an active infection. His concern was that she was a carrier, and if so, we would need to react differently in the future when she had a sore throat besides just relying on the office rapid test. So that meant...ANOTHER throat culture so that he could do a longer test to determine if she is a strep carrier. I got the call yesterday morning, and her culture was NORMAL! So that means she's not a carrier and hopefully, the penicillin shot knocked the infection out. His rule of thumb for discussing a tonsillectomy is 6 infections in 1 year, 4 in 2 consecutive years, or 3 in 3 consecutive years, so we wait and watch.

I also talked to him about her nose bleeds. 

Brent and I both had frequent nosebleeds as kids {Brent had to have his nose cauterized and eventually something had to be done to his septum}, and Trent has them as well - his gene mutation test shows that he has several clotting mutations which I find fascinating.

Drew has been getting increasingly frequent nosebleeds, and Dr. Connolly noticed she has a blood vessel near the surface in both sides of her nose that would create frequent nosebleeds. He suggested us trying to keep her nose more moisturized, using something like Neosporin, and we can also put a cool mist humidifier in her room at night. If this doesn't help over the next few weeks, he suggested cauterizing as well, which we would likely do under anesthesia - and one nostril at a time - due to her age and anxiety-level.

So a very informative appointment overall! Now let's all cross our fingers for a) no more strep throat and b) a reduction of nosebleeds!