Watching: The Practice, which I taped last night.

Grateful for: Health insurance. It's good to know that when one of the boys wakes up sick, we can see a doctor right away. Not to mention getting a $70 antibiotic for $10.

Yet Another Ear Infection

The twins, who are usually good sleepers, had us up several times last night. Their restless night began early, thanks to my leaving the door to their room open when I put them to bed. Their room is the coldest one in the house, and last night was supposed to be particularly frosty. Unfortunately, the light and noise from the rest of the house kept them awake until almost 10 p.m.

When I went to bed at 11:30, I woke Matthew up and escorted him to the bathroom. We've been trying, unsuccessfully, to get Matthew to stay dry through the night. Stephen attained this milestone months ago, but Matthew has been unable to do so. He gamely stood in front of the toilet but was unable to produce anything. So I put a diaper on him and took him back to bed.

A few hours later, Matthew woke up crying. When I went to check on him, he said his left ear hurt. The poor kid is particularly prone to ear infections. I gave him some Tylenol and told him we'd take him to the doctor in the morning.

He settled down for a little while, but was awake and crying less than an hour later. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do except hold him and try to comfort him. Well, actually, there was something I could have done, if my sleep-addled brain had let me remember it: we still had some ear drops left from the last time Matthew had an ear infection, and they might have helped dull the pain, if only I'd remembered to give them to him. He was still complaining about his ear when he woke up in the morning, so I called the pediatricians' office and got an 11:30 appointment.

When we arrived there we had to wait in the "sick" waiting room. I should have thought to bring some toys or a book, but it has been awhile since we have had to make one of these visits, and I forgot that there isn't really much for them to do there.

There was only one toy in the waiting room, and a little 2-year-old girl had it. When she turned in my direction, I saw that she had pink, weepy eyes. Then she was called to an examining room by the nurse. Her mother told her to put the toy down, and they left the waiting room. Stephen moved to pick up the abandoned toy, and I snapped, "Don't touch that, Stephen!" I'm not usually too paranoid about germs, but I didn't want my guys to pick up a case of conjunctivitis.

Dr. B. was one of the pediatricians we saw last spring back when we were all coming down with strep throat. He has an easy manner and a great rapport with kids. The first thing he did when he walked in was to grab a small handful of cotton balls and toss them in the air in the twins' direction, exclaiming, "It's snowing!"

This charmed Stephen, who, while Matthew was being examined, amused himself by gathering up the cotton balls and throwing them back at the doctor, echoing, "It's snowing!"

Matthew does indeed have an ear infection, the doctor said, a particularly nasty inflammation of his left ear. He wrote us a prescription for Augmentin chewables--gotta love those chewable medicines--and said he wants to see Matthew back in two weeks.

I hate it when my kids are sick. It was even worse before they were verbal. At least now they are old enough to tell me where they hurt.

previous       index       e-mail me       next