I hate to start my blogging adventure with a downer post, but that's my life today, and Toot is just pitiful.
First, you should know that Jack is never (I mean never) sick. Michael and I have been so fortunate with both of our children that they have been so healthy thus far. We have what our family calls "phantom fevers" occassionally with Jack and Jaye, but even those are few and far between. So, when symptoms such as "goopy eyes" appear, it's never a fun waiting game to see if it turns into something serious.
Yesterday afternoon, Jack woke up with those eyes described above and I immediately sent Dr. Tara (our amazingly caring, always available, bend-over-backwards for my child pediatrician) a text to see what she advised, and we found ourselves in her office first thing this morning. You see, pink eye is so stinkin' contagious and since we had just spent Easter weekend with our entire family, we had to find out if that's what he had potentially spread to approximately 25 of our closest relatives...yikes!
Jack's track record at Dr. Tara's office is that of loud screaming, crocodile tears, and the occasional sucker given to calm his nerves, not reward his behavior. He's terrified of the dr.'s office because he never has to go and he doesn't know the routine. We tell him repeatedly that Dr. Tara only wants him to feel better, but how easy is that to believe when they stick q-tips up your nose to your brain, and down your throat to your belly button??? And I have to say, I can't really blame him.
This morning was different though. I gave Jack several pep talks and described every last detail of what I knew would happen in Dr. Tara's today so that he would be prepared for it all. I also bribed him...ha! And, I'm soooo not above, or ashamed to admit that :-)
You see, Jack was a perfect little boy in that dr.'s office today. He wasn't scared. He trusted me, he trusted Tammy (his nurse), and he trusted Dr. Tara. He was on his best behavior as far as his manners were concerned, and he even offered to share some of his lemon sugar cookies with Mrs. Tammy. I'm not sure that she has any memories of Jack not screaming at the top of his lungs, so this made me especially happy! While Mrs. Tammy was listening to his heart and lungs, she also let him wear the stethoscope (he loved learning that new word by the way) to hear his heartbeat, and Dr. Tara did the same when she came in. While she was listening and asking Jack to take big, deep breaths, he said, "Dr. Tara, can you hear the love in my heart?" It was the sweetest little thing ever!!! I think he won them all over today and wiped his slate clean after years of fighting, binding, and practically torturing him at the doctor for his first four years.
Our diagnosis is that of pink eye/allergies/possible virus and we came home with eye drops. I love that Dr. Tara isn't one to prescribe antibiotics at the drop of a hat, and that she trusts me as the parent to monitor Jack's symptoms and give his little body a chance to heal itself. We also came home with a hot wheels track and 3 cars for the bathtub since he was such a big boy! He really wanted the Moon Dough Magic Zoo (thanks Nick Jr. commercials), but Wal-Mart was fresh out and he settled for the bathtub race track.
Now I'm off to nap with my little toot, and probably get pink eye myself! He will snuggle when he is sick though, so I'll take any I can get :-)
He did great with round one of his eye drops by the way, also much to my surprise. Jack is the child that will squirm away from 3 adults trying to contain him and administer medicine, and can detect the smallest drop of tylenol or benadryl hidden in ANYTHING! He shocked me to no end when he just opened those eyes right up and let me drip his drops right in. Maybe I should start believing him when he says, "Mama, I'm 4 years old, and that's a big boy."
