Last week, I had a bad cold. Of course, I gave it to Bean, and Bean to Chris.
Chris's coughing sounded like barking, not coughing. He was having a hard time catching his breath between barks. He didn't have a fever like Bean did, at least that I could detect, but that barky cough set my Spidey senses tingling. It wasn't a kosher cough, by any means.
I took him to the doctor, and she told me it was croup. Croup? Isn't that one of those old-timey diseases that you only caught if you were a six-year-old working in a shirtwaist factory? Apparently not. It's the infant and toddler verion of laryngitis. She gave him a steroid injection and sent me home with a scrip for a few liquid doses of the same thing.
That night, Bean told me "Mama, my ear's broken." I asked her if her ear hurt, she told me no. I asked if she had a boo-boo in her ear - no, she says. My spidey senses were tingling again, but I decided to let it pass.
In the morning, I found her half on and half off her bed, crying and pulling her ear. Listen, my kid is tough as nails. She doesn't cry unless there's a bone sticking out. If any other kid were in her position, I think they'd be writhing on the floor, screaming for mercy.
It was the weekend, which meant our pediatrician was not available, so I carted her across town to the clinic's sister office. After waiting for an hour and a half past our appointment time (seriously? Why bother with appointments then?) I saw the same doddering old pediatrician that treated my husband when he was little. One tympaogram later and, yup, double ear infection. A doozy, by the look of the tympanogram results.
Bean's really good about taking the antibiotics that the doctor prescribed. The antibiotics, though, have some unfortunate gastro-intestinal and behavioral side effects, so we're back in diapers for the week, and I'm working extra hard to keep my temper. My poor little girl. She's such a brave little trooper that I didn't know something was wrong until it was a full-blown double ear infection.
Chris is doing fine now. He walked nine steps the other day, nine!
Posted by Jen at February 18, 2009 11:15 AM