The Ear Infection

I mentioned in my last few posts that James' hadn't been feeling well.  Justin was sick on Christmas and the rest of us seem to have picked up his cold.  Well James wasn't feeling better and had been running a bit of a fever, so on Sunday, when we noticed that he was wheezing a little bit, we decided to head to Patient First.  The wait wasn't long, which was good.  James was pretty grumpy by the time we were seen.  It didn't help things at all that the nurse (or nurse's assistant, I'm guessing) didn't have a great bedside manner with James.  I wasn't too happy with her, but I tried to be as helpful as possible.  She seemed to question that James couldn't have his temperature taken orally.  Well, he's 18 months old, so that might be your first clue.  She took his temperature under his arm, which was fairly inaccurate (97.2 degrees) but decided that was close enough.  Anyway, during all this James was crying and raising his arms to be picked up.  Adam and I both tried to comfort him, but I really don't blame him for crying.  Then the nurse asks if he's an only child.  As though he's crying because he's spoiled and not because you're screwing with him.  Anyway, the doctor came in and I was on the defensive a little bit.  She asked if he had been complaining of ear pain and I told her that he couldn't talk that well, so no, he hadn't complained.  She then revised her question and asked if he'd been pulling on his ear, which he hadn't.  After that I tried to be nicer, but I was just a little annoyed!  Anyway, James' left ear was very inflamed and his right ear was getting there.  His congestion was making it difficult for his ears to drain, so we got him some amoxicillin.  This is only James' third ear infection, which isn't too bad.  Its going to take a lot for him to beat either of his parents records for most ear infections.  When the doctor wrote the prescription she looked at his birthday and said, "Oh, he's only 18 months!  He looks so much older!"  Maybe that's why the nurse was expecting him to be better behaved.  He might be tall, but he's still my little guy.
And that was our New Year's Day.