girlfiend

The Fiendling, showing no symptoms whatsoever, told me yesterday that his ear hurt. I asked which one and he pointed to his right ear. He napped well and slept through the night so I didn’t think much of it until this morning when he told me again that his ear hurt, this time putting his hand over his ear and rubbing it against his shoulder a bit. Still not showing any signs of distress I let it go until lunch time when it occurred to me that he still has a cough and slightly runny nose, so maybe I should take him to the doctor just to make sure.

I called the pediatricians office (just shy of his second birthday and I’m finally over my habit of calling his doctor the vet) and his doctor actually answered the phone, recognized my voice, and told me to bring him in after his nap. He hates visiting the doctor’s office and screamed while she listened to his chest and checked his ears and throat. He didn’t have any visible infection but his cries were hoarse, his throat was red and both ears were full of fluid- more in the right than the left.

His pediatrician said that even though he didn’t actually have an infection she thought it was best to treat him under the circumstances. I agreed that I’d rather it didn’t turn into an infection, but I felt uneasy about giving him an antibiotic for an infection that wasn’t actually there. She may have rolled her eyes a little when she replied, “He’s almost two years old and he’s never taken an antibiotic. That’s better than 99% of my patients. I don’t think we’re over-medicating him.”

Point taken. Prescription filled. I did appreciate that she told me she was impressed by the fact that he actually told me what was hurting him. If he hadn’t told me I never would have known anything was going on.