Spots

History:  5 year old with rash on torso.  Small raised bumps with no center or red vesicles.

Patient is currently on day 6 of a 10 day course of amoxicillin.

Has your child ever broken out in spots that itch all over?  Well Reina (my 5 year old) had a case of these that just showed up yesterday.

They were small raised bumps that didn't have any center or red vesicles.

Of course my first thought was chicken pox but she had gotten immunized at 12 months and she really didn't seem too sick.  

According to Dr. Sears (on the internet) he said you don't need to page the doctor for a case of the spots - just bring them in the next day.  So then I paged Colin.

The next day her back looked like this!  (She took 25mg Benedryl for itching and sleeping at night.)  

Diagnosis: Morbilliform Drug reaction to Amoxicilin. Probably a type IV hypersensitivity  (not "allergic" reaction)

In my words: her immune system was slowly reacting with the antibiotic and finally raised red flag and said STOP.

How to install a toilet over tile

We tried to remodel our bathroom for around $500. Basically you almost need to triple your original estimate to get a true idea of the final cost.

In this picture you see Colin has installed the previous flange from the old toilet.  He screwed it firmly into the hardy-board and subfloor.  The tile was cut and set around the toilet flange not under it.  Colin then slid the mounting bolts in and we cut a straw in half (from Wendy's) to put on top of the screws so

they would be easier to locate when we put the toilet on.

Next, install the new wax seal to the underside of the toilet.

Then Colin set the toilet over the mounting straws.

Make sure to push down hard on the toilet to get the wax to settle in. Wiggle it just a little bit but not too much to set it.

Then install the hardware on the mounting bolts.  Make sure to finger tighten and then only turn 1/2 turn with a wrench.  Any more and you risk cracking the toilet.

We found that our tile was not completely flat and so we used a rubber gasket (in the paint section at Home Depot) to check where there was extra space under the toilet.  Using a putty knife to push in the gasket around the areas where there was space and then an exacto knife to cut it off we prevented 99.5% of the rocking.

This is the supply hose that worked best for all the bending back there.

Total time for toilet installation: 1.5 hours