house of pain

So our weekend went as planned, but as suspected, I didn't feel much better. Just your general cold-gone-apeshit kind of feeling. By Monday morning, what with my face feeling like it had been smacked with a hammer, I knew I probably had a sinus infection. After sending Jane to school, I went to the walk-in where that was confirmed. I got a prescription for Amoxicillin and went on my merry way. I pretty much just rode around with Greg doing chores all day, and just couldn't wait to go home and go to bed.

My plans were disrupted when Jane woke up at 2:30 a.m. (this is Tuesday now) with croup. This is now the third time she's had it, so as soon as I heard her barky cough and her (very) restricted breathing, I simultaneously had her in the bathroom with the steamy hot water going (to help with the inflammation) and was on the phone with her doctor's service. When I finally spoke to the doctor around 3 a.m., she decided to call in a steroid prescription at the 24-hour pharmacy, because, as we've learned, the second night of croup is usually worse than the first. So if she was this bad now, Tuesday night would be awful.

But here's the thing. Unlike all the other times we've had to give Jane prescription medication, she refused to take it. Sure, she's refused the traditional way (with a syringe or spoon) nearly 100% of the time, but usually when we put it in her milk or juice, or in extreme cases, yogurt or ice cream, she'll take it. Not this time. Nooooo, we spent ALL. DAY. YESTERDAY. trying to get a dose of this stuff in her. She wasn't having it. And there's nothing like pressure to get your kid to take medication when you know she won't be able to breathe without it.

By mid-afternoon yesterday, we were in a panic. We called the doctor's office for the second time (oh wait- third time) and they decided to call in a dissolvable steroid. They told us to just stick it in the back of her mouth, between her tongue and cheek, and by the time she realized what was going on, it would be dissolved! Voila! No problem! Yeah right.

We knew this wasn't going to work as it was supposed to from the very start. I don't know if Jane is more....willful....than your typical three-year-old, but she wasn't having it. No way. Greg got about a half a dose in her after we picked it up, and she spit out the rest. In the meantime, she was sounding wheezier and wheezier, and we just knew we were going to end up in the ER overnight if we didn't get a full dose in her.

So before bedtime, I popped her up on the counter, and forced a pill in her mouth. You know, like you have to do with a cat or a dog. Oh yes. Held her mouth shut, held her arms down, basically putting her in a hostage situation - or, at least, that was how she reacted. Total and utter fear. I felt like complete and total shit of course, but come on, kid! I need to you to BREATHE!

Although she did manage to push some of it out, some of the dose must've stayed in her, because although her breathing was still crappy last night, she didn't wake up a lot and we didn't end up at the hospital. (Of course, I was awake all night. Making sure she was breathing. I think this is about 85% of parenting in the early years - making sure they're breathing.)

I kept her home again today, because her breathing is still not 100%, and I'm afraid she won't hold back on the running around at daycare, and I don't trust a teacher who is in charge of 20 students to have her eye on my kid all the time (which, really, is fine - I wouldn't expect them to.)

As for me - well, my antibiotics are wreaking havoc on my stomach, my sinuses are better but not great, I missed two days of work and I'm completely exhausted by the past couple of nights. But you don't get to be sick when you're a mom, as it turns out.