Last year on New Year’s Day, I was at the tail-end of a terrible sinus infection. Said infection was made more insufferable by the fact that I was pregnant and unable to take anything. That infection then morphed into an ear infection that kept me up all of New Year’s Eve. I spent New Year’s Day frozen in pain as an insane amount of pressure built up inside my head. The pressure had to be released – that evening one of my ear drums ruptured and I was partially deaf in that ear for over a month.
Fast forward one year. New Year’s Day 2008. We’re at Aunt Brenda’s for our traditional New Year’s meal. Elliot informs us that she’s “going to be sick tomorrow.” We laugh it off – she’s predicting her ailments now? That evening she tosses and turns all night while crying. Her noisy whining wakes her brother up. Twice. At 4am, I give up and bring the baby to bed with me and finally manage to fall asleep. In the space between 10pm and 4am I ask Elliot several times, “What’s wrong? Are you too hot? Are you sick?” Because she refuses to answer me, I assume she’s trying to get attention. Trying to capture one of her parents in a prolonged late night cuddle. I get angry. I tell her to stop crying and GO TO SLEEP ALREADY.
Finally, at 4am, Jason turns on the lights and has one of his classic heart-to-hearts with her. Wakes her up out of her semi-conscious Sleep Crying state and asks her what’s wrong. Her ear hurts, she says. Jason dopes her up with some Baby Tylenol (yes, we are total slackers and don’t actually have any Children’s Tylenol floating around the house) and she immediately goes to sleep.
In the morning, I feel awful. Elliot is cranky and it’s hard to know whether it’s lack of sleep or some sort of actual condition. I debate about taking her to the doctor. The last time she was “sick” she kept insisting her bum was hurting, but it turns out that sometimes three-year-olds just like to hear themselves say the word “bum” repeatedly. Seeing as the word “ear” doesn’t have a similar appeal, I’m almost certain that we won’t have a repeat of the Wolf Pup That Cried Infection.
At 10am I decide I will take her to the doctor. She insists she’s okay. That it just hurts a little bit. It is 3pm by the time everyone has been suitably bathed and groomed and satiated and rested (Arlo NEEDS his nap) so that the public can lay eyes upon us. At the walk-in clinic we are greeted by a large and unfriendly crowd of impatient and contagious patients. We wait for an hour and a half to see the doctor. In the meantime, we people watch. I want to kiss the children for their quiet behavior while I witness some truly abhorrent displays courtesy of my fellow waiting room patrons (both the children and the adults).
As soon as the doctor sees her, he pronounces Elliot’s left ear infected. We walk out in a few short minutes with a predictable antibiotic prescription and I buy some Children’s Tylenol for good measure. I’m in awe of how Elliot takes what I know to be incredible pain in stride. I tell her that she has to tell me when she’s sick so I can help her. She looks at me calmly and says, “Well, I told daddy.” I’m not sure what to do with this information. All I know is, now I have some idea of how my poor mother felt when I was 10 and broke my ankle. How she insisted it wasn’t broken, only to find out the next day that it was. In three places.
I make a silent promise to listen more closely to my daughter. Even when she’s saying nothing. Especially when my instincts tell me something just isn’t right.
Oh boy – I forgot about your ailments last New Year. Here’s hoping next year is NOT cursed by the wicked ear fairy’s plague of misery.
I’ll be with you guys, so you’d better not be sick!
Yikes. ((hugs))
she’s a strong one. watch out for miss elliot!
(glad she’s on the mend.)
Ear infections suck! I hope she’s feeling better soon and don’t be to rough on yourself. We all do it. DQ had a broken arm for about 6 hours before we finally took her to the ER since we initially believed she was just being her normal Drama Queen self.
The Poo also has a very high tolerance for pain. She also never, ever gets a fever (at least, very rarely) with her infections. It was always so hard to tell. When she was a baby her symptoms wouldn’t really show up until both ears were terribly infected.
These children of ours are amazing, aren’t they? Don’t be too hard on yourself. It is hard sometimes, at this age especially I find, to tell reality from fantasy.
I think you may have little psychic on your hands! I realized that we didn’t have any children’s motrin the other night when Carson was complaining of his teeth hurting. I suppose we can be bad mommies together.
The only childhood illness I remember were the ear infections…they’re awful! Poor kid!
The one and only time Jack had an ear infection – I didn’t believe him. He did the whole night wakening thing – thought it was just attention grabbing. He said his ear hurt. I ignored it. I also ignored the disgusting crap leaking out his ear…(remember – I’m supposed to be a health professional) – finally took him in 3 days later. Ah, I’m a great mother…..
AN EAR FOR AN EAR! Just kidding. Hugs for you both. She is just like you were. Tough! She will overcome!
I’m glad you’re all on the mend. There’s nothing worse than having a sick child because you feel like there’s nothing you can do. And we ALWAYS have Children’s Tylenol if you need it.
I once went into Emma’s room and scolded the pants off her for not sleeping. She promptly threw up on her pillow. I felt like super-mom that day. Oh yeah. Hope she feels better soon!
Wow, what a way to start the New Year. Glad she’s on the mend though!
I’m sorry for the rough start to the New Year…both my kids mask illness well–it’s tough sometimes.
I hear ya. When our little ones wake in the night, it’s impossible to know why. And the ear infection is impossible to detect. Then, you schlep them into the doctor’s office and all the doctor does is look inside with that little light scope. Can’t they just sell those at the drugstore so we can look in their ears ourselves and avoid the hour and a half people watching fiasco? I do hope she feels better soon.
Poor Elliot, and poor you! Hope she recovers quickly.
I hope she starts to feel better soon!
I can’t tell you how many times my eldest has faked symptoms for attention (God, I hope that’s not a verdict on my parenting). So when she really is sick, I tend not to believe it until she’s really uncomfortable.
“I have a tummy ache,” is a classic. And of course, I got rewarded for my disbelief with vomit on my shoes.
Hope Elliot is on the mend soon, poor thing.
Poor baby! She’s a tough little stinker, eh? Hope she’s feeling better — and don’t you beat yourself up. You did just fine.
Hydes
Aw, poor girl! Hope she is feeling better and back to playing with all those fantastic gifts Santa bestowed upon her…. love all the holiday photos. Happy New Year to you and yours!
I hate ear infections. Fortunately they go away quickly once you’re on the meds. Hope that’s true for Elliot.
My daughter is so stoic during illness that I very nearly missed the pneumonia she’d been walking around with. I felt terrible.
Me? The ear infection I had a few years ago had me begging for painkillers with a little more ooomph than Tylenol.
Ear infections are the worst. I’m sorry!
She is one tough cookie monster. When she was with us you wouldn’t have known anything was wrong. She still giggled till we peed our pants. What a joy!
Ugh, ears infections are the WORST. Hope you’re both doing better!
I completely know what you mean by this post. My daughter had a double ear infection and two ruptured ear drums right before Christmas this year, and, since she didn’t say expressly that her ears hurt (she was just very irritable, kept saying that everything was so LOUD, and that she was hearing weird noises in her ears), we also assumed she was just trying to get attention. GAH! At least now I know.