Madsen Medical Mysteries

Poor Joshie! He woke up early Sunday morning (3:30am, in fact) with a cold sore. Actually, I think it was more his teething that was bothering him, because he was fine the rest of the day once I gave him his teething tablets. It didn't look too bad; more like a bad scratch, if you didn't look too carefully.

(Side note: Joshie seems to get all of the weird childhood ailments that Spencer never did. He had acid reflux (heartburn) for the first six months of his life, he's had thrush twice (and gave it to me the 2nd time - ouch!), RSV (no fun and quite scary), and a dozen or so colds. So cold sores? Not too surprising!)

But then he woke up this morning (3:30am, again) and his cold sores had spread. As you can see, a bit scarier looking.



Poor baby!

We had a crazy morning. I was supposed to return a tiller we rented for the weekend. I thought it had to be in at 10am, but it was actually 8:30am. I learned this at 7:45am, and the rental place was a 15 minute drive away. So I hurried and changed and fed the kids, and then ran a brush through my hair, washed my face, changed, and was out the door. On the way I decided to give Josh's pediatrician a call, just to see if there was anything I could do for the poor little guy. The nurse I talked to decided it was probably best for us to come in, since the sores had spread so much overnight. They had an available appointment at 9:45, which I agreed to. Only after I had hung up did I remember that I had rushed out of the house without a diaper bag, which meant no diapers, no snacks, no nothin'. Not exactly a good spot to be in, given my kids' histories!

But it actually turned out okay. After dropping off the tiller we went to McDonald's for half and hour. It was right across the street from the rental place, I was starving because I hadn't eaten, and going to the Playplace made Spencer extremely happy and cooperative. Later, the doctor decided that it was indeed cold sores (and not an infection, like the nurse suspected), and gave us a prescription that already seems to help.

I was home by 11am and finally got to shower. No diaper blowouts, no snack attacks, no need for toys or burp cloths or anything else in the magical diaper bag. Phew. Prayers answered.

By the way, I was surprised by Joshie's weight today: 24 pounds 10 ounces - and not quite eight months old! Actually, I shouldn't be surprised, given his physique.



Not everyone can pull off knee fat, but he sure can!