If she's too miserable to life her head from her pillow, a towel spread over the pillow will catch a lot of the barf.
Seems like the post nasal drip settles in the tummy, too. The result can be barfiness. You have my sympathies, soz. Been there. It's no fun. I hope everyone gets a good night's sleep at your house tonight.
soz : i don't know if this will help, but here it is.
as a child i had tonsillitis (sp ?) quite often, of course there were no antibios then, we had to gargle with saltwater etc. etc.
some years ago i started to have sinus and ear problems : antibiotics were prescribed. they sure didn't agree with me !!!
finally a doctor told me to use VOSOL (an acetic solution) for my ears : it keeps my ears in pretty good shape.
keep in mind that the "eustachian tube" connects he middle ear and the nose/sinus, so germs (?) can easily travel back and forth once an infection has started.
a neighbour who used to work for a retired doctor told me that the "old and european trained" doctor told her to rinse her nose (sinus) with a salt/bicarbonate of soda solution . i told my doctor and the ear/nose/throat specialist. they smiled and thought it would do no harm. a year later i visited the ear/nose/throat clinic at our local hospital again ... and what did i find in the waiting room ... a stack of leaflets with instructions on how to make and use the salt rinse !
i use the nose rinse just as i brush my teeth - every night . no more sinus infection !
after rinsing my nose i use a NASACORT spray (prescription) and finally a RHINARIS spray (a lubricating nasal spray). while this may sound like a crazy way of treating /preventing a sinus infection, it sure has worked for me. i hope i won't ever have to use antibiotics again - sick stomach/sleep disturbance were the results of the antibio.
i'm not suggesting you use the "nose wash" on the sozlet right away, but you may want to consider the VOSOL eardrops if your doctor agrees.
i can send the instructions for the nose wash if you and your doc agree to try it.
sure hope you all sleep well ! hbg
ps. this may sound as if it is advice from a raving lunatic, but i can tell you that my sinus/ear infections really got me down. and i don't want to have to resort to antibio again - if i can help it .
Soz - ick! I'm sorry that you and the sozlet are feeling so poorly. I hope this is a quick round of whatever ick you've both got.
ear problems
soz : hear is an article you may find helpful. you will also find numerous articles under google "salt nasal wash" . you all sleep well ! hbg
...keeping your nose clean...
and here is a reference to
...VOSOL...
Oh man.
I remember when Mo was just a few weeks old and he was spending the night here. He was so sick and I was so angry that his parents had brought him over when he was so sick.
KAK (remember her?) suggested a saline nasal spray to help with his congestion until I could get hold of his parents (who had no phone) and get him to a doctor. That was the only thing that helped him at all. KAK checked in with me all that night.
I was afraid if I took Mo to the ER and explained that I couldn't find his parents and no I wasn't really anybody who had any say so in his life that they would put him in foster care.
I would have taken him in anyway if I thought the danger was serious enough. Luckily, KAK helped me.
The next day we went to the doctor and Mo was put in the hospital for a week.
KAK used to get so much s**t on Abuzz but I never ever forgot her holding my hand during that long awful night. She was always one of my "dears".
Anyway, this is all beside the point. I'm just saying that hamburger's nasal spray ideas hit a very soft and trusting part of my heart.
Good night and good luck, soz and sozlet!
For a child, using the saline spray (Ocean is a name brand) is a great idea. And, I'd consider using it throughout the winter months when the house is most dry.
Going to read back a bit....
Yep on saline spray, it's good stuff. The only thing that concerns me about it is getting it clean enough between uses -- I bought a whole bunch of new ones last year.
This whole thing went so fast that I didn't really get a grip on it the way I would have liked. The stuffiness was mild and seemed to be responding well overall to the steam + fluids + immune system boosters, and also towards the end of last year she was getting sick like normal kids get sick -- stuffy nose, not much beyond that. It seemed like all the stuff we threw at her last year contributed to the problem, somehow -- it's part of why I so want to talk to that ENT, because I want to have a cohesive plan rather than doing one thing that contradicts something else, and I really liked how he handled things last year.
But then it was just wham bam boom and now it's nearly Friday, somehow, already. I'm still kind of half thinking it's Saturday or Sunday.
What we're doing for now -- decongestants (for me and for her), a spray for me and a spray + oral (syrup) for her. Holding on to the antibiotic scrip. Doing our best to halt the barf train. (Not happening yet, 2-3 more incidents since I last checked in.) Argh, that's the one thing that just torpedoes everything else. She gets dehydrated and so so weak... Latest thing I tried was to order her to focus on my fingers and what they were doing and walk/ tickled them around on her back, head, feet, etc. She concentrated hard and didn't barf anything up (though it may also have been that there was nothing left...)
Anyway, very much hoping that ENT guy will be in email contact/ back from his vacation by Monday, so I can just TALK to him a bit about what the best approach is. I am so going to cry if I get bullied into something (the doc today was quite bad coppish) and then ENT guy goes "oooh, really...?"
Anyway, fingers crossed for tonight. The lot of us look like we're shipwreck survivors or something. I'm hacking and coughing and have giant blue circles under my eyes, sozlet's pale and waifish, E.G. had some kind of an allergy attack himself and is shaky and has a bandaid on his finger with blood seeping through and won't tell me what happened. :-?
Before his attack he made a heroic trip to the grocery store though and we're well-stocked for a houseful of sickies, sozlet had a bit of popsicle and it's the first thing she's been able to keep down for any length of time. (Knock on wood.)
Anyway, thanks for listening, helps enormously to just be able to tell my tale of woe. Here's hoping I have better news tomorrow. (Yes, I'm terrified about what tonight will hold -- fingers crossed.)
Awwwww...... big anticeptic hugs to all y'all!
hamburger and I have both had a lot of experience with the stomach nastiness that comes during allergy attacks - the symptoms sound very allergy-ish to me - ears, throat, stomach wonkiness <I throw up nearly every morning during the height of allergy season - sometimes several times when the spiral starts>
I had to leave a big meeting at work today - too many people/perfumes/heat - had a bit of an asthma bout - had to find a cool space - take a hit off of the puffer - take a coupla hits off of the nasal spray <a non-allergenic one> - then come back in and stand in the part of the hall where there weren't many people
If there is a chance that it's allergy-related - hold off on using any honey, herbal teas etc - they can exacerbate things. Given E.G's allergies - has sozlet gone for a full allergy work-up. Seems to me I was about her age when I had my first round of scratch tests.
Don't stress too much on getting the saline spray thingie clean. Really. I get a bit hung up on that myself, and have to be talked off the cliff about it by the g.p. annually.
salt is a preservative, it tends to kill stuff. Or at least prohibit growth. Maybe write the date on the bottle and toss it out after a specified amount of time.
Hmmm, course seawater is full of life......
I never had a personal problem with KAK, but she did start to annoy me. Easy enough to ignore. So, was the annoying KAK an imposter?
Kak's around here somewhere.
I never figured that out... myself, I think with good reason, but at this point I don't remember.
Let us just say Kak had a good side...
4:30 AM seems to be the witching hour (I seem to remember this from when she was teeny, too), but overall it went SO much better than I'd feared. After the last retch-but-not-barf attack I described above, she was really tired, and went ahead and put her to bed. She fell asleep with no problem. Because her tummy was so wonky and because stopping that cycle was first priority (her tummy needs to settle before it can accept ANYTHING, including water), no medicine.
She woke up at 4:30 but was basically fine. No fever, not complaining of any pain, just very weak. I gave her some sips of grape juice that we'd prepared for her. She really wanted a glass of ice water and was really sad when I wouldn't let her, but I know from experience that's what starts things up again. She appreciated the sip of grape juice but wanted more and was trying to be cooperative but was obviously out of sorts, so I decided to read her books for a while because prime talk-herself-into-barfing time is when she's laying there in the dark trying to sleep and feeling vaguely yucky. Gave her sips of juice every 20 minutes or so and read books for about an hour and a half. Eventually, she fell back asleep. (And a while after that, I did.)
Still sleeping as of now, so it's been more than 12 hours since she last barfed/ retched, that's good. Have to be super careful when she wakes up though as she'll want a tall glass of ice water and, like, a cheeseburger.
Didn't complain of any pain from her ear all night and that's w/o Motrin, also good.
We'll see.
Thanks for the saline tip, beth.
Yeah, I think complete allergy testing is the next step.
Sorry you feel so awful so often!
soz : here is a lot more "unsolicitated" advice !
fruitjuice ? can really make your stomach more wonky - fermentation is a problem with any fruitjuice. "stirred" gingerale - get the bubbles out - is what our old doc recommended for ehbeth when small - ginger tends to settle the stomach
allergy : both ehbeth and i have all kinds of allergies and it often "hits us in the gut". TAVIST is an old standby that we've been using for some 40 years - even have used it for the dogs(when cleo was scratching excessively - as they say : "good for man and beast"). TAVIST seems to be one of the few allergy meds that also quiets "the gut" .
as for saline solution, i mix up a fresh batch 2-3 times a week - do not use ordinary salt but pure rock or sea-salt without iodine or other additives (doctor recommended "pickling" salt - it's pure). add a bit of bicarbonate of soda/baking soda, to take the sting out of it. it's much easier to use that way
when travelling i use "hydra sense - baby mist nasal care"; works very well but is about $10 for a 2-3 weeks supply.
running out of more suggestions !
will check back later.
hope you all feel better by tonight. hbg
