my daughter, the acute sinusitis

Julianna appears to be one giant sinus infection. She seems to get one right after another, after another. She has been on three or four antibiotics since the start of the year. I'd guess that she's been through one bottle of Tylenol, one teaspoon at a time, just since 2011.

I feel so terrible for her and feel like I'm at my wits end with my kids being sick. Yesterday I was blaming myself. I felt like I wasn't cleaning enough, didn't make them wash their hands enough, eat healthy enough, etc. But, today I am throwing my hands up and accepting that there could be something more wrong than just a few germs.

Lily had the influenza flu. She was sick for so long and you can tell that she's still feeling tired and run down. I learned my lesson with Lily. Our whole family will be getting the flu shot, and not so late in the year next time. Lily and Drew had the shot, but I'm thinking it was too late into flu season to matter. Or maybe Lily just caught a strain that the flu shot didn't cover. Either way, we're getting the flu shot from now on.

Julianna, on the other hand, is another story all together. She has been sick approximately 75% of 2011. She runs a mild fever 4-5 days a week it seems. She is constantly having yucky drainage from her nose. She has a cough more often than not. And she generally seems to be fighting something all the time. The most frustrating part about all of this is that she had her adenoids out in October. The adenoidectemy was supposed to take care of the constant drainage and sinus infections. The doctor told us that in 85% of patients that get tubes and adenoidectemies, decrease their time spent at the doctors office tenfold. Apparently, Julianna is in the 15% that it doesn't help. At her follow-up visit in December she was still draining from her nose! Dr. Epp told me that it should soon stop and put her on another round of antibiotics. Well, we know how that went. That was December 22nd and now it is February 17th. The girl has not been well more than 3 days in a row since then and the drainage never stopped. I feel so bad for her!

So, the latest update: Lily had a well child visit with Dr. Losew on Tuesday and I called and asked if I could bring the ailing Julianna along for the ride. They said that it was no problem. So, after seeing Julianna, Dr. Losew called up the ENT doctor and told him about our continued trouble. He is getting Julianna in next week. He said that there could  be something more wrong with her sinuses, rather than just the adenoids. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I suppose we'll find out next week.

So, here we are on Thursday, Julianna is on day two of her latest antibiotic. Besides Julianna having a bloody nose, everything seemed to be just fine this morning. I actually got to go workout for the first time in ages and then we went to Myca's for a playdate. About 45 minutes into the playdate Julianna seemed really tired and was not acting like herself. She was clingy, and felt warm to the touch. I brought her home and sure enough, the girl has another fever.

I hope that there is an answer to all of this. I hope that it's not another surgery. Does anyone have any experience with this? Could she be having allergies? I now realize that no amount of Lysol and hand washing is going to keep her from having these infections. It's obviously something else. But what is it? What can I adjust to make her healthy? I am tired...and if I am tired, I can't imagine how she is feeling.