Gametes In Love

Have you ever gone to a consignment sale? Or tried to get (gently) used clothing for preschooler boys? If not, lemme tell you: don’t waste your time – there aren’t many opportunities or options, if any at all. Now I know why!

Two days in a row G has come home with torn pants. I don’t mean “a little, we can sew this up” tears, but big ole’ gaping holes!!! The first one was impressive. It wasn’t the traditional horizontal tear you’d see – it was splitting his pant leg vertically.

And “Why?” pay you ask? (I know I did!)
G: I saw a little whole and my fingers were too strong.

[Insert boys causing trouble sticking things into holes joke here]

I think that health insurance companies should make their company’s a ‘2-for-1’ special when there are kids on the policy. Clearly because not only are they walking petri dishes, but because the only thing they want to share is germs.
Case in point, I have been to the pediatrician twice in under one week, accompanied by a different child.

G got over his cold in 24 hours. S2 on the other hand has decided he likes his current germy friends, they were partying from Monday Wednesday and even invited Ear Infection to join the fun.
If you’re counting, this is S2’s 7th ear infection in 10 months. It is his 3rd in 3 months. The last two happened within weeks of each other and we had to go through 3 separate rounds of antibiotics to clear the fluid build-up. I’m hoping this time won’t be as bad. But it’s also the start of flu season (Thanx for the happy announcement, doc!), so chances are it won’t be the last in the next few months either.

S and I were both very prone to eat infections as kids. S2, clearly, did not manage to avoid our fate. G has has a couple himself, but S2 wins the medal on this between the two.

We meet back with our pedi in 11 more days for a follow-up. I think I’m ready for a more serious discussion about what to do next. Every time S2 gets a cold it moves to his ears, and I’m not interested in dealing with this for months on end during a critical language development period. Plus it’s uncomfortable for him. Plus the extra cost of prolonged sick time is expensive for us (in time off work, or additional child-care). The nurse practitioner that diagnosed the latest round said that tubes might not quite be the next move for us. That more than likely we’ll be put on a low grade anti-biotic for the duration of the flu season, to try and see if more time will let our dude age out of infections. Only after that would we be referred to an ENT who will then decide what to suggest. I’m not thrilled over this possibility. The idea of being on antibiotics just in case is not sit well with me. Establishing a resistance to these meds is one hang up (especially given how many medicines we had to try to get rid of the last one); damage to his stomach a second; and I just don’t want to bomb the whole village just to get rid of the rats out of one house. I would be open to doing a steroid/antibiotics combo to clear the current bug and liquid, but not at all as a prophylactic. I’m also completely open to tubes, even if he has to have this procedure several times before he ages out.

So we’ll see if our pediatrician will actually recommend, but no matter what I’m ready to see a specialist. Don’t get me wrong, I loooove our pedi, but sometimes what I love about him (the fact that he’s conservative on over-medicating and taking aggressive steps), I also find frustrating when I think it’s the better course of action.

The great news is that S2 has already had two days worth of antibiotics doses (when he wakes up in a little bit I’ll give him his 3rd day one), and he had no fever yesterday. He’s still on a feeding strike, but given the fact that he’s shoving his hands in his mouth like there’s no tomorrow, I think that’s more of a teething thing (he really needs #26 to come soon to add some symmetry), I think that’s more teething related. So monkey IS getting better… for now 🙂