Just goes to show you...

S got diagnosed with Strep on Monday. They gave her liquid penicillin - no big deal, I figured it was similar to amoxicillin and getting her to take it would be no big deal. To her credit, she was even willing since it was pink and looked kind of like the children's Motrin she takes. Her dosage was 5 ml. She tried to swallow it, but gagged, spit it out, and cried.

Fast forward 20 minutes.

More tears, lots of screaming and gagging and spitting and I have to hold her down to get her to take it. That night? It took me and R to get it in her. The next morning I had to be creative but since I was running a fever of 103, my creativity was severely limited. So I dipped the end of the syringe in motrin and gave her a tiny bit of medicine at a time. Then I called the doctor and begged them to give her something, anything else. The nurse called me back and said that the doctor was calling in the amoxicillin. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

In the meantime, I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with strep too. Then last night I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at T's tonsils just to make sure they weren't swollen. I have no idea how this kid was swallowing anything. His tonsils were hugely swollen, and so were the lymph nodes in his neck. He hadn't complained of any pain, he never had a fever, no symptoms whatsoever.

So this morning, just to be safe, I took T to be tested for strep. Three days into the week, three of us tested, all three of us with strep. I call R on our way home - go and get tested! Since he wasn't showing symptoms, they didn't do the quick test for him. We'll know in 48 hours if he's got it.

We get home and I try to get T to take the medicine. His dosage is twice what S's is. He finished the first teaspoon, and tried really hard to take the second, but he kept gagging. Just out of curiosity, I tried it.

Oh. My. Lord. Words can not describe the awfulness of this medicine, because they do not exist. Need me to try anyway? Bitter doesn't begin to describe it. I felt like I was using my tongue to clean a sidewalk, that's how nasty it was. Actually, I think I'd rather lick a sidewalk - any sidewalk - than have to taste that again. I took a drink of diet 7up right after I tried the medicine, and hours later, the flavor of that nasty stuff is still on the plastic of my cup. I might have to throw the cup away. For real.

I owed S a huge apology for being so grouchy when she didn't want to take the stuff. Blech.

I had even tried to get T the amoxicillin before anything was prescribed today, but the doctor said that he really should be taking the penicillin. Obviously, the doctor hasn't tried it. And T, ever the good sport, was good to try as we mixed it with juice (gross), sugar (which just intensified the grossness), Pepsi (gag inducing), and then alternated with pudding, Popsicles, and rice krispy treats. Nothing worked, and he wasn't being difficult because I tried it all too. Yech!

I finally got him to take it the same way I got S to, but he's got two doses a day for ten days of this stuff, and he's actually gagging when he takes it. So I guess I'll be calling and begging the doctor to switch him to amoxicillin too. I even tried to teach him to swallow pills by using skittles, but his throat is too swollen, and he's having a lot of trouble with the concept of swallowing it without chewing. And the penicillin pill won't have the neat-o candy coating.

Oh the joys of parenting. But I can tell you this - the next time the kids have trouble taking medicine? I'll be trying it before I go all 'You are going to take this because you have to and I said so" on them.