sicky kid

Eric has had a cough... since like November. After about 4 weeks of it in November we took him to the doctors and discovered he has an ear infection so he went on antibiotics and the cough disappeared... for about a month. Then he got the cough again so after a week I took him in to get checked because I felt so horrible that we didnt' take him in for 4 weeks the first cough episode. He checked out fine, no ear infections or anything. So the cough was always there. It wasn't too bad and I was feeling like it was just a winter cough. Then a week ago, on Friday, his cough seemed to be getting much worse. He was home with Daddy for the second half of the day while I went to my internship. By the time I got home he had this horrible barking cough. And of course it was too late to take him to the doctors. So we would have to wait until Monday. He wasn't sick enough to go to the ER but he definitely needed to see a doctor. It was a long weekend. Saturday he woke up with a mild fever but he was still his usual silly happy self with a horrible cough and a fever. So monday came and we went to the doctors first thing in the morning. Just as we suspected, ear infection... in both ears. The problem with Eric going to the doctors these days is the minute we walk to the room he starts crying and screams through the whole appointment. The doctor wasn't able to hear his lungs because he was screaming so she wasn't sure if he had pneumonia but the antibiotic would kill everything supposedly. We were told to go back on thursday if his cough didn't get better. By Wednesday he still had a mild fever and the cough wasn't all that much better. Given that a snowstorm was coming overnight we went to the doctors again on Wednesday. This time we saw his PCP as opposed to the other doctor that has never been our favorite. She was so patient with Eric's screaming and blew bubbles and did whatever it took to get him comfortable. By the end of the appointment he wasn't crying and seemed to be ok with Dr. Evans. Needless to say she was not concerned with how he was progressing. Although we did get a lecture about not getting him a flu shot or the chicken pox vaccine (the lectures are the part of her that I do not enjoy). So needless to say it is Saturday, the cough is still pretty strong but isn't as bad. It's not keeping him up all night. We have a follow up appointment in a week so hopefully things will look fine then. The hardest part about all of this has been that he hasn't had an appetite for a week. He requests food but then didn't want to eat it. It was stressful because he's not a big kid to begin with and cannot afford to lose weight. It was the best day ever when he finally started really eating well again yesterday. Needless to say any food he requests I give him. He wants ice cream, he gets it. He wants a cookie, no problem! Eat whatever you want kid! Gain some weight! But of course we offer fruits and veggies too (he ate a whole salad tonight!)! And that is our illness story.