We have answers!

I'd have screamed for the past several nights straight, too.

Last night as I was bathing Anna, I noticed a pool of blood in her right ear. I called Paul over to do a sanity check, and yep: he agreed. As she sat there happily playing with her fireman in the tub (lots of bubbles and dancing and singing), we decided it must have something to do with her tubes...maybe complications of them trying to work themselves out. I wasn't going to stand for another night of misery for all of us so we brought her into the ER around 8pm. She was seen quickly, and by lots of actually friendly hospital workers who were super nice to her. She didn't care for them, until it was time to confidentally tell them "BYE BYE!".

Anyway, turns out she officially has her first ear infection. This was not on my list of possible things keeping her up at night. I missed this because she wasn't congested, had no fever, and wasn't even pulling at her ears. It wasn't even on my radar.Yes, she screamed at night, and yes she was cranky and clingy during the day, but teething is a good cause for that. She does have tubes, but that's because of chronic congestion while she was a baby that was causing trouble with her hearing, with the potential to affect her ability to learn to speak. (Turns out no problem there!)...not for recurrent ear infections. Before the tubes, she literally couldn't hear us throw a pot on the garage floor!

I had an ear infection in May. The first ever in my life for me and it hurt worse than child birth labor. NOTHING without a prescription helps that pain. The only thing that helped my pain was actual Vicodin that I had left over from Anna's birth (that I didn't need then). Ear infections are incredibly painful. Believe me. I am a pretty tough chick. The doc said that it was a good thing she had the tubes on this one...it was bad. All the little kiddos out there with an ear infection have my empathy. It sucks. No wonder she didn't want us to leave her side the past several days and nights!

While at the ER we got a chest x-ray for her cough. I didn't expect they'd find anything and they didn't, yay. I like data and results, people. She sat still like a good girl during the x-rays. In fact she was really good the entire time at the hospital, except when our (12 year old) doctor did his eval.

Last night we got home around 10pm and she actually slept soundly all night, with the exception of the coughing, which amounted to one fit. In the meantime, by the time we got home, my fever had also spiked to 101.2 and I felt it. The cold/chills was the worst. It broke around 2am. I came to work, and Anna went to school. I think my fever is back, but Anna was in a cheery mood this morning, with just a little congestion that actually seems to be growing. No fever.

I suspect she may have had already what I'm coming down with and we just missed the fever, or she never had one. In fact we checked her temp this weekend and nothing. I too, am developing a cough. Ugh. No one touch my door knobs.

Despite my fever and her cough, we had a peaceful night's sleep. I think the ear drainage is offering her some major relief. I know I was just wishing my eardrum would burst when I had the infection, just to get some relief. This morning she woke up with more crap draining out of her ear. It's gross but pretty cool to see what that crap actually looks like.

Here's the thing, people. Before I had a kid, I'd hear these same horror stories from friends and co-workers. I thought, "eh, kids. That sucks. Who'd want that?" But once we were in it, it wasn't that bad. Maybe it's because the folks at the hospital were so friendly and quick, and it was still early in the evening, etc. Maybe it's because she was still in pretty good spirits at the hospital. Maybe it's because we love her so much it's worth it.