so very proud

this is the face of a big girl.  a big girl that I am so proud of.

after missing school the last two days due to diarrhea and vomit, I decided she was probably well enough to go to school.

so I get a phone call from her teacher around 12 noon, that she cried on and off for the morning and after coming in from the morning playground session, she started crying that her ear hurt.

light bulb goes off in my head...ear infection?

I kick into worried mama mode, and made her a same day appointment to see a doctor.  I almost ran out of the house right away to pick her up from school, but the teacher and I agreed that they would call me if she didn't go to sleep (they just finished lunch and usually nap right afterwards).  She didn't eat much at lunch, which is what I expected.

I also looked up signs and symptoms of an ear infection (thank you babycenter and webmd) and she seemed to have some of them.  An ear infection can usually follow a cold, and be characterized by vomiting and diarrhea.  I figured, for the peace of my own mind, I'll just take her in.  Having to shell out a copay (which I didn't...thanks to double coverage) is better than having a sick child on my hands.

She napped for only 40 minutes and woke up screaming, according to her teachers.  By the time I got there, she looked a pitiful mess.

She wasn't too happy to be seeing a doctor either, but I told her it was to make sure her ears weren't broken.  Because God forbid, we need to use tape to stick them back on.

yes, that's how we reason with a 2 year old in our house.

she cried while having her weight and height taken, but could still answer the nurse when asked princess or Minnie sticker.  go figure.

She fought the ear exam, but it pretty much confirmed an ear infection.  Her left ear was impacted with ear wax (we will be tackling that tonight), the nurse practitioner describing it as "sandy", while her right ear was clearly red and inflamed.  She was pretty sure if we cleaned the left ear out, she would find more of the same.

We walked out with a prescription in hand, and my next worry was how were we going to get her to take it.  She isn't our poster child when it comes to taking medications, so I knew we were going to have a battle on our hands.

Boy, was I wrong.

I let her dip her finger into the cap of the medication bottle so she could taste the antibiotic.  And hot dog!!  She liked it!  Smells like candy, and I'm darn sure it tastes like it too.  Somehow I had to get 8 milliliters of it down her throat, and doing it the finger dip way was not going to cut it.  So she chose to drink it from the dosing cup and voila!  One dose down, 19 more to go.

The little snarky girl said to me five minutes later...I'm still sick, can I have more?

Amoxicillin, all I can say is...thank you for being good to me AND my girl :)

Comments

[lila ko, paw paw]

jamie: reading your description of how you treated keira brings back so much memories of how you were when you were ill with stomach virus and/or ear infection. you had stomach virus quite often and that was the reason why it was hard for you to gain weight. worry about your children is what parenthood is all about. hope keira can recover fast enough to enjoy the holidays.

[Fu fu]

i see that her nose is healing nicely. =)

[Jamie]

Ryan, she also remembers WHERE she got the owie and WHO she was with when she got it. :)

[Corinne]

Great job, Keira! And good job, Mom!! Mattie had an ear infection once - had to hold him down for the antibiotics (but he was much younger). Hope she feels better soon! Happy Holidays!