Wednesday, August 8, 2007

My son has a drug problem

You know those days that you think are going to be one way, and they turn out being another way entirely? Had one of those today. Today was supposed to be a very busy day at work, then quiet evening with the kids. Matt left today for a quick business trip, so it would be just the three of us. Well.

Ethan woke up this morning with a high fever. He's had a cough, plus his ears seem to get infected if they even hear the word sick, so I arranged to stay home with him and take him to the doctor. Even then, I was reformulating in my mind what the day would be like. I should know better. I thought we'd zip to the doctor, maybe grab a prescription, and be home in time for me to catch a morning talk show or two. Ha! We didn't leave the doctor until 10:30. E has the croup AND an ear infection, so he was prescribed an antibiotic AND a steroid. We wait for 40 minutes at Wal Mart, only to be handed 1 prescription. One heated discussion and 20 more minutes later, we were finally on our way home with the drugs. By this point, E is semi-comotose from the combination of fever and exhaustion, it's way past his lunch and nap time and he's had neither, and it's about a million degrees outside.

We got home around noon, and I fed him lunch as quickly as I could. Then I had to give him three medications: the two prescriptions and Motrin for his fever. Showing spectacularly bad judgement, I attempted the nasty-tasting antibiotic first, which has the consistency of school glue. The moment it hit his lips, all the trauma of the morning caught up with him and he went postal. I mean, he was FURIOUS. But it's not like I could just let it go--he HAD to have the medicine. So I finally got most of it in him--the rest was all over both of us. I changed him for his nap, but then I still had two medicines to go. Well, of course the minute he saw the bottles he freaked again--who could blame him? I went with the steriod next. It at least smelled good, but it didn't matter--he hated it on principle. This time, the coughing and the fury and the attempts not to swallow coincided, with the unfortunate result that E threw up the steroid and probably most of the antibiotic all over both of us.

By this point, I was ready to call the doctor for a prescription of my own. I gave up on the Motrin entirely--some things are not worth the battle. Fortunately, he was so exhausted by the drama that the minute he was cleaned up, he was out, and had a good nap. I was able to recover, and tonight my mom came over and helped me hold him down while we gave him his medicine. It actually went much better this time--it all stayed down.

He's apparently quite contagious, so we'll be home again tomorrow. Abby will go to school, because we are not nearly as fun as the kids there. I will watch 150 episodes of The Backyardigans with Ethan, and try to regain his trust after shoving glue substitute down his throat again in the morning.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally understand your pain. John David has always despised medication. As a matter of fact, about 3 months ago was the first time since before age 1 that he willingly took medication (meaning I didn't have to hold him down and force medication down his throat OR have him get a shot which gets him so worked up that he usually throws up at the doctor's office) Mind you, he is 6. Well anyway, good luck :)

Anonymous said...

As the grandmother of said sick child, I must say this: it broke my heart to have to hold E down last night and I'm afraid I wasn't very good at it. Nance, I'm sorry. But it makes me want to cry myself to see him so upset. He screams so loud you think you are hurting him, and we're so not hurting him, and you want to stop. Nance never got this sick as a child and took her medicine when she was suppose to and Abby is in love with taking medicine. She offers to take E's if he doesn't want his. That's odd too! I'll come over again tonight and help but if I start crying you'll at least know why. I just can't stand to see those baby blue eyes filled with tears!!

Mom

Anonymous said...

Your mother must have you confused with someone else as a young child! Oh, how I remember when you would get sick, and if we even mentioned out loud that you might have to go to the doctor, it was total pandemonium! You reminded me of the readers I learned to read with in 1st grade! "See Nancy run!", "See Nancy run fast and hide!" But we always prevailed! And after promising a treat to you,(reading a book was your most favorite treat!) the doctor visit was not near as bad as you made it out to be! Dr. Riley could always work magic on you and mom! However, the medicine was a whole different ball game! We had to make big promises for that to work out properly! We all survived, and Dr. Riley still rules! Give that precious "Baby E" a kiss for me - he will get better- and give him that medicine until it is all gone! Tell Abby hi for me! Linda

Anonymous said...

Oh Nancy...I remember holding Gabe down and holding his nose to make him swallow, which was so difficult over the tears!! Though they think we are KILLING them, they do survive!! I'm sorry to hear he isn't feeling well!! Hard any time, but EXTRA hard when Daddy is away too!! Hope to see you Sunday!!

Kori

Alice said...

Hey Nancy,

It is Alice. I got your blog thru Mandy's new blog. I am so excited to see your beautiful family.

I didn't even know that you had a son now. Sorry that he is ill. I hope to keep in touch now with the blogs. I am sure you like Mandy close to you again.

Click on my name to see my blog if you are interested.

Outnumbered said...

Nice blog title. Are future episodes scheduled for "My husband is a woman-izer" and talk about how popular he is with the old ladies at church, or "My daughter drinks too much" and talk about how many colas she can drink in a single meal?! How did the wedding reception go this weekend? Did the TW guys impress you?