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Dec. 18th, 2006 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaAlex got a nasty cold over Thanksgiving. She had a persistent, dry, hacking cough afterward, which, as often happens following a cold, lasted for weeks. A couple of days ago, the cough started to get ugly, and ramped up with tremendous ferocity. This morning she coughed so hard that she vomited.
So this afternoon we saw one of our pediatrician's partners. She diagnosed Alex with a sinus infection that has been, in the doctor's very words, "seething" since Thanksgiving. It is now causing the dreadful cough, and has also backed up her Eustachian tubes and started an ear infection. Although the AAP now recommends that most ear infections not be treated with antibiotics, it seems not to apply in our case. Alex now has a big bottle of bright pink, bubblegum-scented, sludgy, but apparently tasty Amoxicillin. We also bought her a bottle of combination antihistamine and cough syrup to help her sleep. (The sinus infection drains when she lies down, so she feels much worse at night. Plus, as a special bonus, antihistamine = sedation.)
The doctor's visit went surprisingly well. Alex's 15- and 18-month checkups were utter nightmares. She started crying and clinging the moment we stepped into the exam room, and graduated to hysterical sobbing when the nurse tried to measure her or the doctor tried to examine her. Developmentally normal, our ped was quick to assure us, but still a wrenching battle that left all three of us unhappy and drained.
A couple of weeks ago, coming home from our last trip to Elmira, Alex suddenly initiated a game of "doctor." She had her nail clippers, which have a magnifying glass at the business end, and announced that she was going to use them to peek in her doggy's ears. We spent about 45 minutes on that car trip examining each other and her doggy. Several times since then she has initiated doctor play, as well - always a monotonous (to me; it's endlessly fascinating to her) rehearsal of a well-child visit. One of the children's librarians found us two picture books about going to the doctor, and she's been demanding them up to five times a day.
We started to prepare her yesterday for the likelihood of a doctor's visit today. She was excited to leave for the appointment: "Go to doctor! Go to doctor!" While we were in the car, we talked about things the doctor might do. (Peek in ears, peek in mouth, listen to chest and back.) We also brought her favorite of the two doctor books with her, and re-read it in the waiting room. When they brought us back to the exam room, although she didn't cry, she clung to Michael pretty tightly and rested her head on his chest. We walked around and around the room looking for things that were the same as in her book, talking about what Thomas (the main character) did with the scale, the blood pressure cuff, the tongue depressor, and so on. It seemed to help so much. Alex was calm when the doctor came in. She let her listen to her chest and back without protest, and accepted the ear exam. She only cried when the doctor wanted to look in her throat. Throughout the exam, we kept talking about what Thomas did in the book, and how Alex was being just like Thomas.
The doctor responded very well to what we were trying to do. She let me hold the tongue depressor, for example, instead of insisting on putting it Alex's mouth herself. She even engaged Alex with the book - she flipped through to find out what happens at the end (Thomas gets stickers from his doctor), and told Alex that she could have stickers at the end too. But really, I think most of the work was done by Alex, through play and through hearing and talking about the stories.
You know, they say that "children work out their issues through play," and it always seemed a reasonable enough idea. But it's something else to see how amazingly well it can work in practice.
Oh, and additional good news: we weighed her, and she's gained almost two pounds since the first week of November. That takes her up to the 25th percentile for weight. Yay!
So this afternoon we saw one of our pediatrician's partners. She diagnosed Alex with a sinus infection that has been, in the doctor's very words, "seething" since Thanksgiving. It is now causing the dreadful cough, and has also backed up her Eustachian tubes and started an ear infection. Although the AAP now recommends that most ear infections not be treated with antibiotics, it seems not to apply in our case. Alex now has a big bottle of bright pink, bubblegum-scented, sludgy, but apparently tasty Amoxicillin. We also bought her a bottle of combination antihistamine and cough syrup to help her sleep. (The sinus infection drains when she lies down, so she feels much worse at night. Plus, as a special bonus, antihistamine = sedation.)
The doctor's visit went surprisingly well. Alex's 15- and 18-month checkups were utter nightmares. She started crying and clinging the moment we stepped into the exam room, and graduated to hysterical sobbing when the nurse tried to measure her or the doctor tried to examine her. Developmentally normal, our ped was quick to assure us, but still a wrenching battle that left all three of us unhappy and drained.
A couple of weeks ago, coming home from our last trip to Elmira, Alex suddenly initiated a game of "doctor." She had her nail clippers, which have a magnifying glass at the business end, and announced that she was going to use them to peek in her doggy's ears. We spent about 45 minutes on that car trip examining each other and her doggy. Several times since then she has initiated doctor play, as well - always a monotonous (to me; it's endlessly fascinating to her) rehearsal of a well-child visit. One of the children's librarians found us two picture books about going to the doctor, and she's been demanding them up to five times a day.
We started to prepare her yesterday for the likelihood of a doctor's visit today. She was excited to leave for the appointment: "Go to doctor! Go to doctor!" While we were in the car, we talked about things the doctor might do. (Peek in ears, peek in mouth, listen to chest and back.) We also brought her favorite of the two doctor books with her, and re-read it in the waiting room. When they brought us back to the exam room, although she didn't cry, she clung to Michael pretty tightly and rested her head on his chest. We walked around and around the room looking for things that were the same as in her book, talking about what Thomas (the main character) did with the scale, the blood pressure cuff, the tongue depressor, and so on. It seemed to help so much. Alex was calm when the doctor came in. She let her listen to her chest and back without protest, and accepted the ear exam. She only cried when the doctor wanted to look in her throat. Throughout the exam, we kept talking about what Thomas did in the book, and how Alex was being just like Thomas.
The doctor responded very well to what we were trying to do. She let me hold the tongue depressor, for example, instead of insisting on putting it Alex's mouth herself. She even engaged Alex with the book - she flipped through to find out what happens at the end (Thomas gets stickers from his doctor), and told Alex that she could have stickers at the end too. But really, I think most of the work was done by Alex, through play and through hearing and talking about the stories.
You know, they say that "children work out their issues through play," and it always seemed a reasonable enough idea. But it's something else to see how amazingly well it can work in practice.
Oh, and additional good news: we weighed her, and she's gained almost two pounds since the first week of November. That takes her up to the 25th percentile for weight. Yay!
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Date: 2006-12-19 02:13 am (UTC)Liam likes his Amoxicillan too - he calls it the "tasty medicine."
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Date: 2006-12-19 02:16 am (UTC)How long does it usually take Liam to start feeling better?
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Date: 2006-12-19 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 04:02 am (UTC)The doctor said that sometimes the first day or two is even worse, because the sinuses are draining. There's something I didn't want to hear! The antihistamine/decongestant seems to be helping a lot with the symptoms, at least.
Do you find that sleep gets a lot worse when he's spoiling for a sinus infection? We've had the most godawful couple of weeks with sleep - the post-lights-out cuddling and rocking has stretched longer and longer until, the last several days, it's taken an hour and a half every night. And naps are awful too. I'm really hoping that all of that is just symptomatic of how awful she feels when she lies down.
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Date: 2006-12-19 10:03 am (UTC)Sleep and personality both suffer. Even with Liam being sick with stomach flu yesterday, his personality was more "him" than when he was suffering from the ear infections. As soon as we got him started on the antibiotics all of that got MUCH easier for us, I'm pleased to say. I hope you find that too!