Sick Katie

Sunday morning Kate got into bed with us, too early as per usual, and I noticed her feet were burning up. Turned out she had a high fever, which meant a day of staying home. It was lower by evening, but still enough that we planned to keep her home. Monday afternoon she was still under the weather so I took her to the doctor. They checked her ears nose and throat and couldn't find anything specific; "just viral" was the guess. So we went home again. But a day later, her fever was up again and she was wailing that her ear was hurting her. So I called to leave a message for her doctor (long story short: give me an antibiotics prescription!), who called me back and nixed phoning in the antibiotics but said I could bring her in again. Super. So off we went at 6:30 in the evening, Kate already in her pajamas, to get the last open slot of the day with her doctor...who looked in Kate's ear and said, You were right. She has an ear infection.

Kate's kind of funny at the doctor. At first she basically stood very close to me, almost hiding behind me, in the room. But then she sat happily on the exam table, drawing pictures with crayons. "What's THAT? And what's THAT?" She giggled when her ears were checked (the first time) and did a big "AH" when the doctor checked her throat. Going back the next day, it was a little different. She had been wailing for the past hour so her eyes were puffy and her face was red. She was in pajamas and teary so she looked like she'd just woken up. And she wanted no part of being there, but just sort of woodenly went through the motions of opening her mouth and gazing at the wall while the doctor checked her ear. It was almost like she was thinking, What am I doing back here? I was here YESTERDAY, and I TOLD you I was sick.

 I picked up the medicine and was home with it before Kate went to bed. She looked at it doubtfully, especially since it wasn't "pink medicine." I'll never forget giving Kate an antibiotic once -- a year ago, I think -- and having her spit the entire thing out down the front of her shirt as I started in disbelief. So you could say I'm wary of giving her new medicine. I smelled it and says, it smells like banana...no. I think, pineapple? Yummy. She took it doubtfully, but it stayed in. "Pineapple," she said, cheerfully.

Today she was home sick, again, but the medicine seemed to be doing its job. We went to the library (she took out two Ladybug Girl books) and the post office, and she felt pretty good. And I knew she was better because at home, when I gave her a sandwich and chips for lunch, she sang.