Doctor Mommy

This past weekend our three year old became ill. Late Saturday night, she threw up on the way home from the Nutcracker reading at a local bookstore. I thought.. ugh... the stomach flu?!? I had just finished a round of antibiotics earlier in the week for a sinus infection, so I was not looking forward to this invasion!

Before heading to bed, I checked on our three year old. After touching her burning forehead, I aroused her to change her out of her thick blanket sleeper, and to change her into lighter weight cotton pjs. I took her temperature, and sure enough, it spiked to 103!! Now, I thought.. this isn't the stomach flu... it's strep throat.

The next morning she asked for juice for breakfast. I also made her a plain piece of toast with a small amount of butter. She took to them both, and after the smallest bite of bread, she turned the rest of it away.... I then proceeded to call her doctor. Initially, the scheduler seemed reluctant to give me an appointment at the afterhours clinic on Sunday, but I insisted.

Once at the doctor's office, they weighed her, and took her back. The medical assistant asked why we were there. I told her I think my daughter has strep throat. She seemed satisfied with that information and left. The doctor came in immediately afterwards, and asked why I thought she had strep.. So I told her, "My daughter has had strep three times. Every time she throws up ONCE. Then within a couple of hours spikes a fever, and then refuses to eat or complains of a sore throat." The doctor asked, "so she's done this recently?" "Yes, she threw up around 8 pm, spiked a fever around 10 pm, and didn't want to eat this morning." She agreed to do a throat culture and also looked in my daughter's ears. She left with the culture, and came back a few minutes later, saying it didn't even take a minute for a the strep test to return a positive, and that it was good I knew my daughter's pattern of presenting with strep so well.

Anyway, on the way home, my husband (though he had been in the appt with us) was just talking to our daughter about it.... trying to get her to describe what happened during it. He asked, "So did the doctor figure out what was wrong with you, and give you medicine to feel better?" She responded emphatically, "No! NO! My mommy told her what was wrong with me, and then she gave me medicine to feel better!" My husband and I both had to stifle our laughter! ;-)