How Do They Know?

How do kids know that it's the weekend, or after hours and choose those times to get sick or hurt?  Or how do they know that one day mommy can sleep in, so that's the day they wake up early, but yesterday you had to wake them at 820 to get to preschool at 830? 

The summer of 2008, our son showed signs of his first illness around 9 on Friday just before Memorial Day.  We toughed out the night with his coughing and crying and decided the next day to take him to ER.  Although I think we waited until Sunday because once he got up Saturday he seemed fine.  Turned out to be croup.  Independence Day was on Friday that year and he got sick again.  I don't remember with what, but we didn't have to take him to ER.  That same summer, I told my mom that if he showed signs of sickness for Labor Day I was sending him to her!

The whole thing about days that I can sleep in happens so often it's eerie.  And yes, he will sleep til 9 or later some mornings, but not when I can too!

This weekend was one of those times where you wonder if a trip to the ER is needed, but don't want to risk more trouble by waiting.  He'd been coughing since Tuesday night, and the typical fixes weren't helping.  Thursday morning I went to the pharmacy to ask what I should give him and she suggested I see the doctor, based on what I told her.  We got in that morning and she felt it was RSV and gave him albuterol.  That made him so hyper that he couldn't hold still if his life depended on it.  I gave him one more treatment, but it didn't seem to be helping, so I didn't see the point.

Friday evening Tony was cooking steaks and they were playing outside.  Our son has a Flinstones type car and he got inside while Tony got on top and they rode down the hill.  They crashed.  Son cried.  Mom fumed.  He didn't seem to really be hurt, just scared, though there was just enough blood in his nose to see it, but not drip out.  Saturday comes and I've totally forgotten about the crash.  He's still coughing and wet so we got children's Sudafed.  The kind you have to show your drivers license to buy.  What's in this stuff?  (Yeah, I know, but c'mon!)  I gave him a dose at 330 and he was zonked by 4.  It probably helped that the library messed up and gave us the 3.5 hour Charlton Heston version of Ben Hur, instead of the shorter, animated version he wanted, but he was asleep and mom had some quiet time!  Around 7 he was awake and complaining that his ear hurt.  He'd been asleep on it for hours, of course it hurt.  My ear hurts after a one hour nap on the same couch.  I made him wait about 30 minutes and since it still hurt I gave him children's ibuprofin.  That seemed to help and he was asleep again after watching Tarzan.  He also didn't seem to be coughing any more.  I was excited that I'd get to sleep all night since he wasn't coughing anymore.  Wrong.

He came to our room at 230 wanting to sleep with is.  I took him back to the couch (it's easier to keep him propped up there and breathe better) and stayed with him til he fell asleep again.  At 530 he came back complaining about his ear again.  We gave him more medicine and let him sleep with us.  It was during those last couple of hours in bed that it ocurred to me that his ear might hurt because of the crash and that maybe there was an internal injury.  Now I was concerned.  People die from these things.  Adding to my fear was Thursday's doctor visit that said his ears were clear.  Could something really have developed in just a couple of days?  If it's an internal injury, we shouldn't wait for the doctors office to open.  But did I want to go to the ER for an ear ache?  We live in a small town and the Urgent Care place is closed on the weekend-does that make sense to anyone else?

Realizing that my son's life is more important than my feeling silly for taking him to ER for an earache, we cancelled church plans and took him in.  Turns out it really is just an ear infection.  I was glad to see that his oxygen level was 98%, where the highest it got at the Dr's office was 95%, even after a treatment.  He also had no fever, which means I might be able to let him go to preschool this week.  I need to wait until tomorrow and make sure he still doesn't have one after 24 hours without fever reducing drugs.  I hope he can go because he's itching to go somewhere.  While complaining of his ear hurting last night he kept asking where we were going.  He didn't like my "nowhere" answer and suggested we to to the "lellow park".  One park in town has yellow equipment and one has red.  That's how he tells them apart.  What made him think we'd go to the park at night in the winter?  Or am I just not adventerous enough?

For a final kicker, Tony and I wanted to nap this afternoon so I gave him another dose of Sudafed.  Yes, he was still congested.  No, we didn't do it just to get him to sleep, just timed it to coincide with a nap for us.  Did he sleep?  Not a wink!  Couldn't even sit still to watch Incredibles.  Figures!  Little stinkers, how do they know?