He may never go to the doctor again

Remember how Caleb had that icky fever all last week? After the fever lingered for several days I finally took him to the doctor. When Keaton was a baby I took him to the doctor the second he had a stuffy nose. But Caleb has to suffer through several days of burning hot fevers before I finally give in and make an appointment. That’s the curse of being the youngest.

So we went to the doctor on Thursday afternoon. We were, of course, running late and Caleb was whining about not being able to find his shoes. “Put on flip flops, slippers, I don’t care. Just get something on your feet for crying out loud. We’re going to be late,” I said sternly (ok, I yelled). I was pretty sure the doctor would frown on me bringing in my coughing and feverish child in through the rainy, cold weather. Why is he sick? Perhaps because you don’t dress him properly.

After Caleb found his old sneakers that require him to curl up his toes just a little (but ate last they were shoes), we jumped in the truck and went on our way. On the way to the office I tried to explain why it’s important to be on time to the doctor. Other people are sick too and they have appointments too. If we are late then it makes their appointment late and we want sick people to see the doctor as soon as they can.

Of course, all of that totally backfired after we had to sit in the office for a half hour before the doctor finally came in. Caleb kept asking, “How long have we been here? Are they going to skip us so they can see the other sick people?”

The nurse finally came in to weigh Caleb and take his vitals. I would tell you how much he weighed, but I’m a bad mommy and stayed in the room to check my Blackberry while they took him out in the hall to weigh him. Again, the price off being the youngest of five.

Then the nurse said she was going to test him for the flu. [On a side note, why is it THE flu. You don't say he has THE pink eye or he has THE bronchitis. But some illnesses get the THE like THE flu, and THE measles. Why?] Have you ever been tested for the flu? They stick this really long Q-tip up your nose. The nurse told him she was going to do it. She even showed him the Q-tip. He said, “Ok.” But he still was unprepared. Maybe she should have given him a count of 1 – 2 – 3 before jamming the thing up to his eyeballs. Instead she just went for the gold. Caleb instantly burst in to tears. And he was done. He wanted to leave right then.

I was able to convince him to stay at least until the doctor entered the room. But he wasn’t very happy about it.

Finally the doctor came in. The flu test was negative. So she checked his ears. Looked up his nose. Examined his tonsils. Felt up his neck. And listened to his back and chest.

Sinus Infection. Strep. And pneumonia.

I felt like such a heel. Here he’d been sick, super sick, for days and I put off taking him to the doctor. Bad mommy.

Because he was so sick he needed to get a shot of antibiotics. The doctor asked me if I wanted her to tell him or should we just surprise him with it. I told her to go ahead and tell him. He handled it pretty well considering not even 20 minutes earlier he had a Q-tip scraping his brain.

Turns out it was actually two shots. One in each thigh. Two nurses came in to give him the shots at the same time. As soon as he saw the needles he looked over at me. “Mama, can you come over and hold my hands?”

“Do you need me to? Do you think your arms are going to jerk?” I asked.

“They might,” he pleaded.

So I held his arms and kissed his forehead while the mean nurses jabbed needles in to his legs. He got a little teary as he told off the nurses. “THAT HURT!”

Five days later he’s doing much better. He’s been fever-free for several days. And his coughing is starting to subside. Although he is still pretty bummed that he can’t participate in P.E. this week and he can’t run around at recess. But he’s on the path to recovery so alls good.

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