cantankerous me
So day #4 of antibiotic treatment for ear infection. Gabriel has taken a real liking to the amoxicillin in all its pink vileness, licking his lips as I squirt it into his mouth, then blowing raspberries to show his glee. It has turned his poo temporarily (I hope) green, and given his farts a very aromatic je ne sais quoi. I'm a little alarmed that this child, who is not yet in day care or exposed to any pre-school riff raff has at 5 months managed to brew up an ear infection with only a little help from the sniffles and a plane ride. Is this the beginning of a long love affair with antibiotics of varying hues? Will he end up with tubes in his ears like his cousins? Will his grandmother* rhaphsodize about his medical woes as gratingly often as she does about her own?
The pediatrician, humoring me as he knows I'm a sometimes med student, let me look at the ear drum in his groovy magnifying otoscope. I don't know much about ("algebra, don't know what a slide rule is for..." sing it!) peds, but that was one red, bulgy ear drum. And I'm feeling pretty dumb because the only symptom he had was a cough, for, like, weeks. For as much reading and studying as I've done in my medical "career" to date, I am realizing that you don't actually learn anything until you've seen it in a real person. Lingering cough...ear infection, of course!
As excited as Gabriel is about getting his next dose of yummy medicine, he is still very luke warm to the idea of eating rice cereal with a spoon. Perhaps I should dye it pink and squirt it down his throat, but no, that would not be the point. The spoon, the big boy eating, that is the point. Maybe he just doesn't like rice cereal and despite offering it 10-15 times (as recommended on the box, in Gerber's desperate bid to sell more baby cereal), it's just a bland as cardboard. Now that his palate has been ruined by the tasty, sweetened meds, I think we should try something a little more toothsome...pears, anyone?
* My MIL really deserves a post of her own, but in brief, I have never had a conversation with her that did not eventually make its way back to someone's ill health, preferably hers. She recently met her 5 month old grandniece, but the only details I managed to retain in the litany of dear Flora's virtues are 1) she sleeps through the night 2) she eats every four hours 3) she hardly cries at all except when she had DOUBLE EAR INFECTIONS and then she just went "ahh ahh."
She declared the last with such glee that I wanted to kick her for getting such a vicarious thrill out of a small person's distress. But perhaps my judgment is slightly biased due to fatigue (my 5 month old son does not sleep through the night), breastfeeding every 2-1/2 hours, and frazzled nerves secondary to fussy, inconsolable infant with only one ear infected. Perhaps I am just a bitch.
The pediatrician, humoring me as he knows I'm a sometimes med student, let me look at the ear drum in his groovy magnifying otoscope. I don't know much about ("algebra, don't know what a slide rule is for..." sing it!) peds, but that was one red, bulgy ear drum. And I'm feeling pretty dumb because the only symptom he had was a cough, for, like, weeks. For as much reading and studying as I've done in my medical "career" to date, I am realizing that you don't actually learn anything until you've seen it in a real person. Lingering cough...ear infection, of course!
As excited as Gabriel is about getting his next dose of yummy medicine, he is still very luke warm to the idea of eating rice cereal with a spoon. Perhaps I should dye it pink and squirt it down his throat, but no, that would not be the point. The spoon, the big boy eating, that is the point. Maybe he just doesn't like rice cereal and despite offering it 10-15 times (as recommended on the box, in Gerber's desperate bid to sell more baby cereal), it's just a bland as cardboard. Now that his palate has been ruined by the tasty, sweetened meds, I think we should try something a little more toothsome...pears, anyone?
* My MIL really deserves a post of her own, but in brief, I have never had a conversation with her that did not eventually make its way back to someone's ill health, preferably hers. She recently met her 5 month old grandniece, but the only details I managed to retain in the litany of dear Flora's virtues are 1) she sleeps through the night 2) she eats every four hours 3) she hardly cries at all except when she had DOUBLE EAR INFECTIONS and then she just went "ahh ahh."
She declared the last with such glee that I wanted to kick her for getting such a vicarious thrill out of a small person's distress. But perhaps my judgment is slightly biased due to fatigue (my 5 month old son does not sleep through the night), breastfeeding every 2-1/2 hours, and frazzled nerves secondary to fussy, inconsolable infant with only one ear infected. Perhaps I am just a bitch.
posted by cmm at 1:44 PM
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