Well, I asked for direction....

and I got it.

We were not supposed to go to the doctor until Monday, but we ended up having to go see them today. Victoria developed a pretty big, swollen, hard lump right at the top of her jaw just in front of her left ear. She has no fever, no pain in her ears, in her mouth and is not complaining of anything except that it hurts when you touch it. She actually flinches when you touch it, so it must be pretty painful. The doctor can not be completely sure by just looking at it if it is a lymph node or her salivary gland, but either way it is inflammed and infected. So, she is on a course of antibiotics for 10 days.

So, this is my answer. We need to medicate. Victoria's body is showing us signs that exposure to this chronic virus is taking some affect on her. I am so thankful that it is something so, so minor but enough to tell me that medication is definitely the best choice.

We are going to keep a once a day medication regiment, but this time will give it to her at dinner time. I am hoping this way any side effects or ill feelings she has will be at bed time and she can sleep it off and feel good in the morning. I am praying that there will be no side effects this time, but we'll do whatever we can to make them as easy on her as possible. We are actually keeping one of the same meds that she was on before and just adding a new one. The new one she will start off at 1/2 tablet per day for 14 days and then go up to the full tablet. This tapering of the medicine will hopefully help her adjust slowly.

We are still going to the doctor's on Monday because they want to look at her face again and make sure the antibiotics are working. We will also talk about exactly when we will be starting this new course of medicine. I'm not sure if they will have us wait until she is done the antibiotics or start it right away.

I am thanking God tonight that He gave me an answer to my problem, but that He did it gently enough to not be too serious of a health issue for Victoria.