Two Sick Boys

When you're day starts with coughing and puke, you just know it's not going to get much better. Brooks and Canaan have had a cold for a few days now. No fever, just that coughing with snotty nose and all around whineyness. This morning Brooks was coughing so much he puked. Not just once, but 3 times. Canaan has had the same thing, but instead of the puking, I started to suspect an ear infection. He was fussing when I cleaned out his ears with a Q-tip yesterday evening.

So I call the doctor. Our normal family doctor wasn't in today. He's actually moving away come December, so I decided it was a good time to try someone new. Dr. Davis had only one opening. Of course, given the way my morning went, the one open slot would be smack in the middle of nap time. *GROAN* Oh well, better than tomorrow when you have two sick whining kids.

Mistake 1 - Thinking it'd be better to go today and not tomorrow. (with no fever and possibly a mild ear infection... would one day really matter?)

Mistake 2 - Going today when there's no time to find a sitter for Lianna, and therefore taking all 3 kids with me.

Mistake 3 - Not taking anything to keep the kids occupied in case this new waiting room didn't have any toys.

It really wasn't THAT bad. It could always be worse right? I wake up the children 45 min after I put them down. We arrive shortly after 2:00. I begin unbuckling both Lianna and Brooks and the latter has another coughing fit. He eventually gags, throws up, and I look for anything to halfway wipe him up before we finish unloading. Oh good, a fast food napkin. That should suffice. We manage to get inside the doctors office without anyone running away, or heading for the street. While filling out paperwork inside (cause it's a new doctor) I try to keep my children from knocking over the fish aquarium in the corner, or coughing on the other people patiently waiting with us. About 20 minutes into our wait, I start to smell a stench coming from my older son's direction. I wait about 5 more minutes hoping we'll be called in to see the doctor soon. No such luck. I ask the receptionist and the directs me to an empty exam room. When I finish changing we follow the nurse. She proceeds to weigh Brooks and gestures towards a new examining room. After taking Canaan out of his car seat the nurse walks out of the room and heads to the baby scale where we're to weigh him. I quickly decide better to shut the two big kids in the exam room, than have them running around the office getting into who knows what. Wow! Canaan has gained 2 pounds in one month! Back to the exam room and both children are alive, and haven't broken anything.

In hopes to shorten an already long story, I'll just sum up mine and Dr. Davis's conversation. He exams the boys, says they have a viral chest cold, and I was indeed correct in thinking Canaan had an ear infection. He prescribes the necessary meds and the children and I head out to pay our bill. I manage to barely keep Brooks from dialing a long distance call on one of their office phones, keep Lianna from putting on a strange cowboy hat found on a bench, and wipe both sets of sticky fingers. (Dr. Davis was wise enough to give both big kids their lollipops early so he and I could discuss his diagnosis and treatment for both boys) I was pleasantly surprised when the receptionist said they were only going to charge me one copay when both boys were seen. Thank God for the little things. I took everyone home and put the boys to bed. Another blessing, they both went back to sleep and finished their naps. *Sigh* What a day.