A Pool Can Be Painful

So I know we are way late in getting a pool purchased and set up, but my husband was adamant he needed one, even if we only use it for like 4 weeks as the summer ends. Thankfully, a Kentucky summer can last into the end of September! So while others are closing theirs up Labor Day weekend, we will be praying for enough warm days to maximize our water bill for the 4500 gallons we filled it with! But with a pool can come some problems.

No.
Not a leak.
Not bugs.
Not algae.
Here is your clue...

Can you guess?

Unfortunately, after just three days of playing in our new pool, my oldest told me he had an earache. He'd been doing cannonballs into our pool several days that day. We had put used a vinegar/alcohol mix to clean some water out of his ears. Yet, as soon as the water was gone, he said his ear started to hurt. By nighttime, he was absolutely miserable. Crying. So I did some more alcohol/vinegar with colloidal silver, and then gave him some Motrin before bed. He slept rough that night. 

Friday, we found those earache drops and gave him some and they did help a wee bit. But as the day went on, it was clear his ears weren't really clearing up. And of course--holiday weekend coming! Well, let me tell you what. Friday night was DREADFUL! He was bawling and even with the Motrin and hot rice socks, it was clear this was NOT going away. So considering I had been up with him most of the night, I knew I needed to get him seen. 

BUT our local clinics were alllllllll closed until Tuesday. Not cool. So I took a chance and even though it was Saturday morning, I called the pediatrician and they were open and could get me in! I had less than 45 minutes to get there--so we threw our clothes on and zipped out the door. Poor fella was just silent and miserable. 

Diagnosis was a SEVERE case of Swimmer's Ear in BOTH ears. They kindly gave him some oral AB and an adult dosage of Motrin while at the office, and called in eardrops AB at one of the only pharmacies open on Saturday. So we went...and discovered that our insurance didn't accept the prescription AND that there wasn't any generic versions. None. So the pedi was going to have to change the script in order for us to get something different.

Long story short, the pharmacist coudln't get ahold of the pediatrician on his cell phone or anything.

But we needed the stuff.

Here is the next painful part.

This tiny ittty bitty bottle? That is the eardrop anti-biotic. And this sucker was over $200! 

You guys. That is more money spent on this ONE script than like 15 years of prescriptions for our family. It is a rip-off that they can get away with that kind of charge to people who can't get insurance to cover it! If it had been the oral version, it would have only been $15. But because we had to have the version that could go into his ears...over $200. And I even looked on the suggested online pharmacy coupon things---and NONE made this affordable!

But as we all know. When it comes to our kids, we do what we have to do.

So we have the "liquid gold" and it is working like a charm. It numbs his ears and brings relief. But I am sooo careful to count every drop. I mean this stuff I'm sure has a higher value than gold. LOL. 

So sadly, the pool brought two painful problems. 

But it still is nice. 

And the weather IS supposed to stay warm for at least 2 more weeks.

Just hope we don't get any more painful problems.