A few weeks ago (story here) Rhianna came down with a wicked ear infection that had her vomiting from the nausea. We rushed to the Emergency room and they patched her up in short order. We wound up with an Antibiotic Amoxicillin and a decongestant called Cardec. We ran the course of the Amoxicillin and things seemed to be better, until a few days ago.

About Tuesday last week, Rhianna started coughing. We starting giving her the Decongestant a little more often (Bottle read 1tsp every 4 hours, as needed), hoping to clear it up. Well, it wasn’t working. Then Saturday she started saying her Ear was hurting again, but where ya gonna go for a doctor on Christmas weekend? Sunday she seemed to get better, so we came on down to Meridian to visit the grandparents and exchange gifts. Today, Laura got ahold of a doctor Rhianna had seen previously working at a local Pediatric clinic and took her in. When we got there, we found out her Ear infection was back, now in both ears.

Well, we told her about the medication she had been taking, and were shocked to hear what she said next. The amoxicillin she had been taking was a dose so low that it might as well have been kool-aid. And to make it even worse, the 1tsp every 4 hours Cardec should have been half a tsp every 6 hours, so we were giving her 3x the recommended dose. After talking to her a bit, she basically said that you shouldn’t take a young sick kid to the ER for stuff like this, just call your regular physician.

How does this happen? If both drugs had been dosed low, then I would assume the doctor overestimated her age or weight, and prescribed stuff for an infant. If both had been high, then perhaps the doctor prescribed as an adult. But with one on each side, what happened? Did the doctor simply have no idea what they were doing? That’s what this doctor seemed to be saying. Hopefully having this straightened out will fix alot of the cranky behavior we’ve had in the last week. Now I know why she woke up every night at 1am looking for us, she probably felt like crap having overdosed on decongestant with a dual-ear infection. Now we also get to enjoy the upcoming Urinary tract infection since the amoxil has probably killed all the good bacteria in her system.

One thing I’ve learned from this is a lesson my parents learned long ago and shared with me after this ordeal: Go buy a Physicians Desk Reference (or use the Internet) and double-check the dosing of all prescriptions.

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