Drug abuse

Anyone who has ever had to give their children Azithromycin will understand this blog post. If you have not....don't judge.

My lovely children are blessed with penicillin allergies (including the entire "cillin" family) so they are restricted in what antibiotics they can have. The best invention ever?...

Azithromycin.

Where amoxicillin (or Penicillin) would require a 2-year-old to take a large dose of disgusting liquid 4 times a day for 11 days, Zithro requires one tiny dose every day for 4 days. A miracle, you say?

Hold on. Where amoxicillin tastes bad but palatable, Zithro induces vomiting in everyone I have had the privilege to share it with. Not the "stomach-ache" kind of vomiting but the "touch-my-lips-and-my-whole-body-reacts-to-get-it-as-far-away-as-possible" kind. Unpleasant. And immediate.

So. Here we were. I picked up the prescription and needed to get the first (and largest) dose into him as soon as possible. What to do?

The last time we were here, he puked all over my van and clothing. We don't want to repeat this incident so I pick up some cupcakes for incentive, a smoothie to get the taste out, and head for the nearest park.

This would be a good time to note that you cannot mix this medication with anything to make it easier. Mixing this with anything short of a gallon of kool-aid only serves to destroy the host mixture and make the medicine as good as garbage cause no one can stomach that much foul tasting Kool-aid.

There in the park we tried coaxing, pleading and, me being on 4 minutes of sleep in what feels like 3 weeks, a few tears. Nothing worked. He was clamped shut. Here's where the "no judging" comes in.

There on the floor of my van, with the door wide open for the inevitable quick escape; I pinned my little boy down on the floor and tenderly place 3 ml of foul liquid into his less-than-willing mouth. He swallowed and I gave him his smoothie in time to keep most of the stuff inside. Try to picture the blood curdling screams of a child nearing death through it all.

That's when I looked over and saw a lovely woman and her two children playing maybe 50 feet away in the park. Easily within earshot of the torture I had been giving out, but completely blocked by the van. As I allowed my children to play in the park while they ate their reward cupcakes and smoothies, she continually eyed me suspiciously. I smiled and had the nerve to ask if she had a kleenex to wipe my poor child's nose. She obliged but handed it to me like she was approaching a rabid animal.

I wonder what she thought I was doing?

At this point I guess all I can do is be thankful he kept the dose down, that my kids played wonderfully in the park, and the woman didn't have a cell phone.

Here's to a full recovery in 4 days!