Playing the Guessing Game

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they had some type of device that could end all the guessing and instantly fill you in on the culprit of all your child’s refusing to eat, not sleeping as well, and being more irritable than usual. That type of device would have been beneficial for us this week and saved us from playing the guessing game, which 9 times out of 10 you end up losing. When Kayla started refusing to eat this week, having some diaheria, and not sleeping as well at night we assumed it was from teething. Since that is how she has been the other 4 times she has cut teeth. But then on Wednesday night, she started running a fever, which at one point in the middle of the night reached almost 105. So, then we instantly knew it was all caused from an ear infection. Needless to say, she was up much of the night. She finally got a couple hours of sleep when I slept with her on the couch. That was after she had one of her coughing fits that led to her throwing up. Luckily, I got her into the bathroom before it happened. But, thankfully, after that she slept fine. --So, of course, I called first thing yesterday morning to get her into the doctor. I was hoping to be able to get her in right away, since she was so miserable, and of course, it was the one-day in ages that I had been scheduled to sub. But of course, they couldn’t get her in right away, and there was no way I could have her there at 11:45, and be finished and to work by 12:30. So, thankfully, Waylen’s mom said she would take her, so then I didn't have to worry about canceling on the school. –In the end, it turned out to be STREP, and all the swelling in her throat had caused an EAR INFECTION. That wasn’t expected at all, that had never been one of our guesses in our guessing game. –So they gave her a shot and then she started on a medication today too. She’s feeling a little better this afternoon, and has started to eat a little more. However, she didn’t sleep well last night, she was awake about every two hours. One of the times she was screaming and screaming, and kept hitting her ear, so we put some drops in her ears. And miraculously, after a few more minutes, she went sound to sleep (at least for a couple of hours). The next time she woke up, she ended up throwing up all over herself, me, and the bed. So, I jumped in the shower with her, while Waylen changed the sheets. Kayla went back to sleep until about 4, when she woke up screaming again, so we put more drops in her ear again. By then, Hayden was in our bed, and so to keep from waking him up too, Kayla and I ended up on the couch again. Thankfully, after she finally went back to sleep, she slept until about 8 this morning, and hopefully, the events won’t repeat themselves tonight. –However, had we had something like the device I mentioned, we could have "plugged" it on her early in the week, and it could have told us that she was refusing to eat because she had a sore throat, not simply because she was teething. Then, we could have taken her in and gotten that taken care of before it got so bad and gave her an ear infection. Then, we probably wouldn’t have lost as many nights of sleep and had so many grouchy days. But then that would take all the fun out of playing the guessing game and make things too easy, right?