earache

sophie had her 12-month well baby exam yesterday.... as usual it was an ordeal going to that place. and it seems like there is always something going wrong! sophie only weighs 17 lbs now - she was 20 lbs even when i weighed her on the baby scale in juneau, and that was only a couple weeks ago. so now she is back where she has always been - beneath the 5th percentile weight for height. and she has and ear infection - oh wait, "there's something going on in this ear, are you ok with starting antibiotics?" ummm, heck no! i looked at the american academy of pediatrics online and they say that antibiotics should not be started except in specific, very severe cases. and she didn't even diagnose a true ear infection, all she saw was redness. she didn't do the tympanoscopy to see if there was fluid behind the ear (the definition of an ear infection). i really have no faith in the doctors here. actually the one we saw isn't even a doctor, she's a physician's assistant.

so i'll call it an 'earache', since i guess that's probably what it is... i've been doing the hot/cold hydrotherapy and using willow/garlic ear drops, and last night we did the 'cold sock therapy' to increase her circulation and white blood cell production, and i'm also doing 'ear exercises' to encourage them to open up and drain........... she hates the hydrotherapy but she LOVES the ear drops, she fell asleep earlier when i was massaging them into her ears.

i saw a rheumatologist on tuesday and she put me on methotrexate - a drug that's used to treat leukemia patients, greeeaat. i see my opthamologist tomorrow, i sure hope it's working. anyways even if my eyes get totally better i have to keep taking the drugs for 2 YEARS afterwards...

this is when we were out camping last weekend, see how dirty her face is!



she waves bye-bye to him and then cries when he leaves in the morning now....


sophie still doesn't really say any words, although she did say DAISY once when we were in juneau. they said if she still doesn't say words by 15 months then they will start doing hearing tests and whatnot...