Severe Ear Infection

Henry coughed and sounded "mucousy" through the night. I got the kids up a little after 7AM. We decided that we'd call the pediatrician's office at 8AM and get recommendations on the kids. I mentioned that they'd come down with a cold at the beginning of the month. Miss R seemed to get over it right away in terms of fever and feeling down. Henry's cough persisted. Both kids had runny noses. I mentioned that Henry had three nights of goopy eyes. I said that both kids were active. Miss R's nose was running with yellow mucous, and I wasn't sure if it was appropriate that she go to school given the color. Ruth, one of Dr. Bianchi's nurses, called back. She said that Miss R was OK for daycare as her current symptoms weren't alarming. But they wanted to see Henry at 1PM.

We decided to keep Miss R home b/c she and Henry were having fun together. They actually keep each other entertained. We had it worked out so that I would watch the kids in the morning. Jeff would take the kids to the doctor's office at 1PM, and my mom would meet them there, and then she'd take the kids in the afternoon so that I could get some work done.

After their breakfast, I took them to their future bedroom and showed them the "big boy" and "big girl" underwear that I had purchased last night at Babies R Us. I decided to break out Henry's Thomas the Tank Engine underwear and see how he liked the feeling of not having so much padding around his derriere. He seemed to like the green Percy pair, so that was today's experiment. I played patty cake and ring-around-the-rosie with the kids. They like the part where "we all fall down." We read books. Henry played golf (NOTE: He may have missed the ball in the picture, but his form sure looked great! Look at that follow through!). I had them watch Elmo's Potty Time video. It didn't seem to inspire the kids. Henry ended up wetting his Percy underpants. The one thing that the video did accomplish was getting the kids to freely say "poo!" and "pee!" for the fun of it.

Well, around 11AM, Miss R's CPS caseworker called. She wanted to do a home visit this afternoon at 4PM. So, it didn't make sense for the kids to go to Grammy's house. I ended up taking Henry to the doctor's office, while Jeff put Miss R down for a nap.

Henry weighed 26 lbs 9 ozs. He yelled out for "Bianchi!," his doctor, when we were in the exam room. Dr. Bianchi said that Henry's chest sounds fine, but when he looked in his left ear, he said "He has a moderate to severe ear infection. Has he been complaining at all about his ears?" I said, "No." Then, he looked in his right ear and said "severe ear infection. He must have an incredibly high pain tolerance." He probably has a sinus infection. He also "may" have viral pink-eye. He gave me eye drops to give him just in case it is bacterial pink-eye. And, he gave me a prescription for the ear infection. We'll see him again in four weeks. Dr. Bianchi was impressed by Henry saying "Bianchi! Bianchi!"

Henry and I went to Walgreen's to get his prescription filled. I kept him in the cart so he wouldn't spread his germs everywhere. I bought him some things (bath toy ducks and books) while we waited for the prescription. While we were in the toy section, Henry said "Car!" He was looking at the end of the aisle toward the back end of the store where various over-the-counter drugs are kept. He repeated "Car!" I looked up at the large mirror fringe that they have running along the top of the shelves. Against the mirror, around the store, various words were written. From our vantage point, we could see the word "care" from the larger word "health care." I'm pretty sure that he was pointing at the word "care" but saying "cars."

Jeff had done some cleaning to make our place presentable. At 3:36PM, Carmen called to cancel the appointment. She was having car problems. Jeff put Henry down for a nap, and Miss R has been running around playing. At one point, she got in Roger's bed in my office, so her hair now has dog fur in it. She has been in a good mood.

That's all for now. Henry won't be going to school tomorrow. Miss R is clear for day care. Plus, she has a bio parent visitation tomorrow.