Where More Than One Child Is Gathered, There Are Sure To Be Germs

Recently, we have been avoiding the church nursery in the interest of Ian and Elliott’s health.  Actually, many Sundays we kept our sick boys home to protect the health of the other kids at church.  Related or not, Elliott had gone about 6 weeks without any significant health issues.  So last weekend we decided to brave it and we took them back to church.  Related or not, I got a call on Tuesday to come pick Elliott up from daycare because of a 102 degree fever.

I took Elliott to the doctor on Thursday.  I assumed they would diagnose an ear infection because, well, that’s the usual suspect.  I’m not sure how my mind overlooked our old friend conjunctivitis. As part of every doctor visit, the appetizer is a light shined in Elliott’s squinting eyes and a doctor or nurse practitioner, more often a nurse practitioner, announcing pink eye.  This visit was no exception.  Now that we knew pink eye was present and accounted for, it was on to the ears.  I was surprised when a peek in both ears turned up no ear infection.  I was momentarily happy about this, but unfortunately, that was not the end of the surprises.

The NP told us she was going to give us a prescription for the pink eye and send us on our way.  Before that though, she did want to prick Elliott’s finger and do a quick blood test to make sure nothing else was showing up.  I assured Elliott this would be fast and painless and we’d soon be on our way home.  I was right, the poke in the finger didn’t bother him much, and any bother he did feel was quickly surrounded by a cool band-aid that he couldn’t wait to get home and show mama.

Oh if only the story could end here.

The NP came in to tell us that he did have something more significant going on.  She wanted to do a throat swab.  She did, and Elliott screamed.  The scream was minor, however, compared to the cries that poured out as he was soon lying on the examination table getting a shot in his leg to cure his strep throat.  His teary eyes looked up at me as I held his arms down and I struggled to understand them.  Did they say “dad this hurts”, “dad you’re a liar” or “dad this hurts because you’re a liar”?  I don’t know and it doesn’t matter, not one of those interpretations would have meant one ounce less pain for me.

The good news is the shot worked.  Elliott was back to his old self by Friday and he was his typical whirlwind of energy all weekend.  He even gave us one of those two year old lines that only a two year old can provide.  We were headed up to the lake to check on our boat yesterday.  Katie’s car was low on gas so I said “We need to stop and get some gas before we go.”

Elliott’s response, believing he was absolutely reflecting back what I had said:  “Are we going to stop and pass some gas daddy?”

With that, the thoughts of shots and doctors and illness were far away memories, only one of the many ways a child’s view of the world is often an ideal one. 

In the video below, you will see that Elliott was quick to recover.