You always get what you pay for!

It all started last Friday after I worked out.  (And when I say "worked out", I really mean "did a 12 minute Jackie Warner video".  I love her!  She has replaced Jillian for me at the moment.)

I noticed a pain in my back.  It felt like I had pulled my left oblique.  I took some Advil Cold and Sinus because in addition to the pulled muscle I also had a head cold.

I felt horrible all weekend but just chalked it up to the head cold and my back pain.  I even took a nap on Sunday.  And the last time I took a nap, I had strep throat. 

On Monday morning as I was getting into the shower, I noticed I had broken out in hives from the center of my stomach all the way around to the center of my back on the left side of my body.  I took some Benadryl and didn't think twice about it.  The Benadryl had zero effect so I figured it wasn't the hives. 

I paid several visits to Dr. Google and came up with lots of things and decided it was just the hives.

Meanwhile, for the last week or so Sarah has had three tiny red pimples on her chest.  Mom thought they were chicken pox but she's had the vaccine and to me they just looked more like pimples than pox.  Again, I wasn't worried although as one of the pimples got bigger and formed a whitehead, I must admit I was frantically Googling "chicken pox in children that have had the vaccine".

On Tuesday we were playing at Jennifer's in an attempt to fill our second snow day and Sarah fell down a couple of stairs.  She spent the rest of the day moaning and whining on the couch but her ankle wasn't swollen.  It wasn't even red. 

Sarah can be a bit of a drama queen so I endured the ear piecing, mind-numbing whining and told her it would feel better in the morning.

I knew I was in for a long day when she came hobbling down the steps on Wednesday morning.  Wednesday was yet another snow day.  (Any amount of snow in North Carolina brings a minimum of two days of cancelled school. 5 inches of snow and several days of below freezing weather brings 3 days of no school followed by at least one day with a two hour delayed start.)

Since I was hoping the kids would be back in school on Thursday (today) and I knew Sarah would love nothing more than to miss school because of her "ankle pain", I decided to nip this ankle issue in the bud. 

I knew the ankle was fine but Sarah wanted crutches - pink crutches.  I knew the only way we would both be happy was to visit the doctor and see what he had to say.

So I called our family doctor yesterday morning right at opening time and got a 9:20 appointment.  Sarah hobbled in and our dear doctor looked at the ankle and determined that it was a little tender but was probably o.k.  Of course the only way to know for sure would be to take her for an X-Ray.

I decided that would not be necessary so he wrapped her ankle.  And even though the wrapping tape was not pink, she was in hog heaven.  All a drama queen really needs is a little extra attention.

"While we are here would you take a look at these three pimples?" I casually asked.

He lifted her shirt and immediately declared, "That's MRSA!"

MRSA?  Crap!  Dr. Google did not even mention MRSA!  So our real life doctor prescribed some ointment.

"Before we leave would you take a look at my hives?" I casually asked.

He lifted my shirt  and declared, "That's SHINGLES!"

So we went in for a fake broken ankle and came out with MRSA and SHINGLES. 

I love Dr. Google but he failed me miserably this time. Sometimes it's worth the $20 co-pay.