My boys, A and Z, both suffer from chronic ear infections. Well, I say this mostly about A - who had over 10 ear infections before he was 13 months old and they FINALLY put in the tubes. One tube fell out last fall and between January and March 2008, he got two more ear infections, prompting the doctor to reinsert both tubes! Z got his first ear infection in February - literally a week after getting his first cold in day care. Today he went for his 6 month check-up and he has an ear infection in both ears (not sure if this counts as ONE or TWO ear infections…but that will only come up when I need to push him to get tubes earlier than 13 months). So despite Z being extremely happy these days, laughing, smiling, no fever, AND he slept through the night Sunday and Monday (it was like a dream), husband and I are told that he has the ear infection and Z needs to get on antibiotics right away to clear it up. Sometimes this comes as no surprise at doctor visits and sometimes I’m completely devastated as a mother that he goes through this…today was being devastated.
We are no strangers to antibiotics and medications. I calculated in January that my pharmacy bill for our family was over $200 - and this is with very good insurance coverage. In February, on the brink of another round of medicine prescriptions, our doctor reminded us that certain kid prescriptions (including the one she was going to prescribe for both A and Z) were FREE at Meijer due to a new program they are doing. It isn’t always convenient for us to go over to Meijer but we have literally saved $40 to date getting some of these prescriptions there rather than our normal pharmacy. A list of the prescriptions can be found at the Meijer site. I know that sometimes we do things because they are convenient, but $40 is now a half tank of gas for my minivan! So take a look and see if you can save too. Every dollar is counting right now.
