J has an earache

Poor little J!

J was screaming his little heart out last night. He wouldn't eat or sleep. He'd been changed and had Tylenol (we thought maybe it was teething pain), but it didn't help. He didn't want to be cuddled, laid down, or played with. His screams became so intense that, at one point, I swear only dogs could hear him.

We tried the car ride trick. He was fairly content in the car, but most unhappy once we got him back inside. We tried his swing, and that seemed to work for a time, but only briefly; soon, his screams returned. Worn to a frazzle, we even tried to see if he would cry himself to sleep. He wouldn't.

After car ride #3, and 4 hours after his last Tylenol dose, I tried to breastfeed him once more; sometimes, he just likes to be comforted that way. He screamed louder. His little face was all red, and the tears were just pouring down his sweet little face. I thought he felt a little warm, so I decided to take his temperature. It was 37.8 under his arm, which I know is high. At that point, a call was placed, and we were instructed to take our little boy to Emergency.

It was midnight. J had been crying inconsolably for about 4 hours at this point.

We headed to Emerg. A nurse checked his temperature at triage. "Well, he doesn't have a fever", he said. "His underarm temperature is only 35.4". "I think that's wrong", said I. "He was 37.8 at our place, and he feels warmer to me now, not cooler". I was quite certain that the triage reading was incorrect; I could feel how warm my little boy was, and I know my thermometer and technique aren't that bad. But in any event, 35.4 was the reading that went on J's chart. ("Crazy mother" I could almost hear him thinking.)

Cuddling J in the waiting room, waiting for a ped's room to open, he fell into a fitful sleep in my arms.

The wait wasn't too long, so into the ped's room we went. As long as he was cuddled in an upright position, J remained reasonably calm. When laid down, he would cry.

The intern came in and checked J's vitals. When asked how we had gotten J to stop screaming, I responded "He's exhausted; that's all". She took a rectal temperature. It was 40!!!

A doctor came in next and checked little J. He ordered a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, but was reasonably certain that J's issue was an ear infection. J was given a dose of Tylenol and some eardrops to numb the ear. He was happier almost instantly. Off we went to radiology for J's x-ray.

Have you ever seen how they do chest films on a baby? J was stripped down to his diaper and put into some vice-like contraption that looked kind of like an hourglass, or perhaps a flower vase. His little feet, threaded between wood slats, stuck out through the bottom of the contraption. His little arms were raised over his head, and a belt was tightened to clamp the vice tighter, so that he couldn't move. We were ordered to leave the room for the x-rays. Little J screamed the whole time. (Ya think?) And then we were able to get him out of the hourglass and get him dressed. We blew raspberries on his bare tummy, and he giggled.

Back to ped's we went. The doctor reviewed J's x-ray, and said that J has a bit of a chest cold still (which we knew), but no pneumonia. His fever and crabbiness are all attributable to the ear infection. One more check of vitals, just to make sure the Tylenol had worked its magic, and a few moments of demonstrating that J could indeed lie down now without screaming, and we were sent home with a bottle of the ear numbing drops.

"Give him the drops every 4 hours for 2-3 days, along with some Tylenol. If he's not better by then, get him re-checked; he may need some antibiotics".

It was 3:30 by the time we got home. All in all, we were seen quite quickly; we were prepared for a much longer wait. But H and I are both still recovering from colds ourselves, and a sleepless night doesn't help us any. H called in sick from work today so he could try to recover, and I'm going back to bed now. I have schoolwork to do, but I need to rest just now. J is napping, so why shouldn't I also?

G'night.