Thanks for asking...

...about this girl. I thought you all deserved an update on Tess's health - since we kind of left you hanging and all. We really appreciate how many of you have asked how she's doing!

For those who weren't aware, we've been trying to figure this girl out for quite some time. All Fall and early Winter, Tess battled constant high fevers and sickness. We wrote the first few fevers off and figured it was just the flu, but after several recurrences, we started to wonder if something else might be up. Lots of miserable days and symptoms later, she was diagnosed with a urinary infection.

Although not common in children anyway, UTI's are always a red flag for something bigger in our house. All of our kids have a one in three chance of having urinary reflux. Jack introduced us to the condition when he was three months old, and he had bladder/ureter surgery when he was four to correct it.

Anyway...

Tess was tested (now that's a mouth full!) for reflux just before Christmas, and the VCUG and ultrasound both came back normal. Great news! Except for the fact that she continued to have symptoms randomly. It has been hard to rule out reflux completely with this being the case.

So, the latest is this: we're a little perplexed! We are going with the VCUG findings that there is no indication of reflux. That being said, in the words of our pediatrician, we also have a "low threshold" for any kind of symptoms. What does that mean? Any time we suspect an infection, we cath her.

Guess how many times she's been cathed in the last four weeks?

Four. Ugh.

One foot through our doctor's front door, and this girl goes into a rage!

I will say that she has seemed more comfortable the last couple of weeks. Minus one of her ear tubes falling out and the ear infection that we thought was an ear infection.

That wasn't. Geesh.

Well, that only leaves one other option. She has to be getting a tooth. We moms are famous for blaming lots of mysterious behavior on getting teeth, aren't we? :)

(Tyler told me once that our kids ought to have at least a couple hundred teeth for all of the times I thought they were getting one. Funny guy.)

Oh well, give 'em Tylenol anyway, I say.

Couldn't hurt.

How's that for an answer? :)