"Nolan-Sick"

Nolan started coughing last night, and it had that particular hacking characteristic that makes parents reach for a thermometer. As soon as I touched his forehead, I knew he was not well. He had a 103F fever, so I gave him some Motrin with his feed last night.

In the morning, he was still running a temp. I took Matt to school and called the pediatrician. Both whooping cough and the flu are going around at the moment. I was pretty sure it wasn't whooping cough, but it could definitely be influenza.

I was really bummed, as we had our annual Enchanted Forest event planned. This event is at our local Audubon Society, and the naturalists dress up as local animals and tell the kids about the animal they represent. It is extremely fun and educational, and I highly doubted we would be going this year.

The pediatrician immediately thought influenza. The cough, the high fever, the congestion and headaches.

All of the tests they ran (from influenza to strep) came back negative. Then they looked in his ears - he has a raging ear infection in the right ear, which is probably the source of the fever. His cough sounds awful, but he has a floppy airway: even a typical cough will sound like croup (or worse) with his malacia.

The final verdict was that he has a nasty ear infection coupled with a cold. Of course, he is much sicker than a typical child with a cold, but that is because of his pre-existing airway and sinus/ear problems. He wasn't really sick - just "Nolan Sick."

We could carry on with our normal activities, as he's not really contagious. A regular cold just causes him a lot more problems than it would for a typical child. We left with a script for Augmentin for his sinuses and ear infection, and we'll give him Ciprodex drops to clear up that ear, too.

We spent the next hour (yes, HOUR) in Rite Aid, waiting for the prescription to be filled. To prevent the kids from checking their blood pressure for the fortieth time, we went "shopping" in the seasonal aisles. There were really cute animal hats on sale for $8, and Matt really wanted one. He picked up a wolf hat and said, "Its name is Snowy. I named it. We can't leave it here!" I bought the hats. I'm a sucker.

Considering they played with the hats for a solid three hours tonight, I'm considering the hats a huge WIN.

With a little more Motrin under his belt, he was feeling pretty well this evening. We made it to the enchanted forest.

I'm glad my little guy doesn't have a really nasty virus - though I hope this ear infection clears before his hearing test on Monday!