And together we learn

updates

I went in for my CT scan the other day. Good news--the little smell receptors aren't permanently damaged; my whole head is just filled up with goo. Funny, because my nose is perfectly clear and I breathe freely, it's just the rest of the cavities that I didn't really realize I had that are all impacted.

So the doctor prescribed a month of a strong antibiotic and a month of the steroid Prednisone. He was pretty dismissive of any side effects and mentioned he didn't know it's effect on breast feeding, so to check with my pediatrician.

I googled. Google is not that comforting of a place, folks. (shudder)

I called and called and called. Pediatrician, baby/medication help lines. Pharmacists. Everyone I talked to said that the dosage and the duration of this particular medication put it in a very gray area for breast feeding, and good luck with this tough decision. Not so helpful!!

And can I just mention how outside my comfort zone this was? Calling doctors to ask questions. Lots of questions. Holy cow, but these are things I abhor!!!

The problem was that I'm not willing to stop nursing my little four month old baby boy, nor am I wanting to not take the medicine and completely lose my sense of smell. The solution that I finally came up with is to take the whole steroid dose in the morning, rather than spread it out over the day. The half life of the steroid is 2 hours, so within 4-5 hours it's completely out of the milk. So I am giving him a bottle during the morning hours, then I'll pump and throw away that milk and be able to nurse for the afternoon and overnight. I feel great about this solution. A bottle or two of formula a day won't kill him and I can get better and we can continue to breast feed. The reason they wanted me to space out the steroid is to prevent a stomach ache. But I'll take it if it means I don't have to wean my baby!

So far, he's less than impressed with the whole bottle thing. But it will work out. And, this morning, I'm going to use all capital letters for this:

I SMELLED THINGS FOR 3 MINUTES!!!!!

It was like explosions of sensation in my nostrils. It was beautiful. Then it left again, and I changed Calvin's horrible diaper with impunity. Talk about superpowers!

So I'm very hopeful that this will work out smoothly, and I'll be fully recovered soon. Then I can start posting happy cheerful stuff, instead of all the woe is me sinus garbage that you've been plagued with for the last little while.

posted by Becca at 9:54 AM