let's play doctor!

No, not like that--get your minds out of the gutter. I mean let's play that most fun of parenting games, the one where you pre-diagnose your child and then call the doctor and announce, 'He has a [fill in name of ailment].' I'm pretty good at this game; this weekend I am two for two (well, more like 1.5 for two).

At 4:00 am Saturday morning, Charlie came and climbed in bed next to me. We are big on everyone sleeping in their OWN beds, but the boys know that if something is really wrong, they can come in our bed. Something was clearly wrong with Charlie; he was feverish sad and spent the next four hours sucking his thumb and moaning and poking me with his little toes. At 8:00 we took his temperature (100.7) gave him some Tylenol, and got ready to go to the pediatrician's office (you have to love any pediatric practice that has SATURDAY office hours--when I called, the nurse said, 'How soon can you be here?' and I said, 'RIGHT NOW!'). I was certain that he had an ear infection--actually, I thought he had TWO infected ears, as he was telling me that both his ears hurt--and I confidently told the nurse this. Of course, HE told her that his throat hurt, too, so she went ahead and did a throat culture.

And guess what? The boy has strep throat. Yes, AGAIN! How crazy is that?

Fortunately, he loves the amoxicillin--this morning he was dancing around in the kitchen singing, 'Yay, pink medicine, I love pink medicine!' And he is feeling substantially better today, and by lunch time he will no longer be contagious, which means that he can GO TO SCHOOL tomorrow, which is all I care about. Because I'm a terrible mother that way.

Speaking of liking medication, we've had to take Henry off of his meds. Yes, really! Just like that! Last week--while Wade was out of town, of course--I noticed that he had developed a facial tic (Henry, not Wade, although I wouldn't be surprised if Wade developed a tic soon, too). I consulted Dr. Google, to see if this was a side effect of the meds, and he said no, not really, but orange juice may impede the absorption of Adderall (did you know that? I didn't!). Dr, Google was, as always, very entertaining, in a scare-the-bejeebus-out-of-you kind of way, but I thought I should check with the actual doctor who treats my children, and she said yes, indeed, the tic is most likely a side effect of the meds and it is not a good one. So she recommended that we stop the meds (and by 'recommended' I mean 'insisted' in a very firm Grown Up Doctor Voice).

As of Friday, then, we are Medication Free--well, Henry is; Charlie is on ten days of antibiotics. So far, no one has had any adverse reactions to this--Charlie's stomach seems to be fine and Henry isn't having any withdrawal. Which is good, as they both need to GO TO SCHOOL tomorrow. For the WHOLE DAY.

Otherwise, I may need to be medicated.