The very last week of summer started off with Eli getting sick--pretty sick. It started off as an ear ache/head ache that turned into tremendous amounts of pain (so much so he was BEGGING me to take him to the doctor). It got so bad that he could not look up, or from side to side with just his head and he was restricting the whole right side of his body because of the pain.
The gist of it is that we went to the after hours clinic, was misdiagnosed (with an ear infection) and then went back a few days later for a better diagnosis because he was getting worse instead of better . After a few days of not a lot of progress, we were sent to the ARA at Dell to make sure there was not a abscess in his neck causing the pain. All came back clear and after a few days on some heavy duty antibiotics he was better.
He got better just in time for Cash to crash off the play scape during a play date with Eli's new classmates. We left the play date early and headed to the doctor, yet again. That made it 5 doctors visits in a total of 9 days!
Somehow and somewhere in between those two mishaps, we went to the Janecek's lake house. Poor Eli was not feeling well, but wanted to go so bad. He really, really tried to perk up and play and have a good time but he just couldn't do it. But he still insists that he had a great time.
All our husband are fire fighters together, and they were all at work, so it was just us 3 moms, 7 boys and one lone girl.
The 3 big boys were always off on their own doing their thing, but were so sweet to Cash. They were so patient and entertained by him. They let him hang outside with them and watch them skateboarding and were teaching him tricks.
Cash stayed out there for hours holding a skateboard, watching the boys on the ramps and skateboarding himself. The kid is good. I see a little glimpse into my future!
After 10 grueling days of literally force feeding and bribing Eli to take his antibiotics, he was finally back to himself and ready for 1st grade! Eli has always had a sensitive gag reflex, but to say that it was difficult to get him to take this medicine would be a huge understatement. The afternoon we got home from the pharmacy, I poured him his first dose. We are talking 7.5ml, so a very small amount. He took one little, sip and held it in his mouth for 10 minutes just whimpering that he couldn't swallow it. I started off calm....trying to convince him that if he took one quick sip it would be over, he could hold his nose, he could take a sip of juice or a piece of candy to get the taste out of his mouth...basically whatever he wanted just to take the darn medicine. He was gagging at the thought of having to swallow it, just sitting there holding it in his mouth. He was so miserable and the medicine is the only thing that would help and he just would. not. swallow. the. medicine.
And then, the horns grew out of my head, the fire came out my nose and a sound I didn't know existed came out of my mouth and told him to go spit it out. I guess it was the wrong day for me to deal with that, but it seemed so easy to just swallow in one sip the medicine and he just wouldn't do it. And I knew we had TEN days of doing this TWO times a day. I called the pharmacy in a rage, holding back tears, partly in desperation and partly because of the blow up I just had, and asked them if there was anything I could do to make it taste better for him. I left the house and headed back to the pharmacy. They tried everything they could including trying to get a different type of medicine and telling the insurance we spilled the medicine to get something new. We ended up trying to mask the taste of it with some flavoring. Honestly, it still smelled disgusting and I wanted to gag just smelling it. I couldn't let him know that though!
Those ten days were brutal--we tried mixing it in chocolate milk, strawberry milk, orange juice, he had ginger ale and juices, and candy next to him that he could chase it with. No joke, the first two days, it took him almost an hour to finish his medicine. He would take these itty, bitty, minuscule sips.
He kept telling me that he couldn't take it one sip. So I got three medicine cups, and put 7.5 ml of ginger ale in one and 7.5ml of orange juice in one and asked him to see if he could drink it in one sip. Of course he could do it, a fly could drink that in one sip, so that boosted his confidence a little.
Finally one day, probably 5 days in, we were all sitting at the island and Owen asked me what was something that he did not like to drink. I suggested coffee. He asked me to pour him the same amount of coffee as Eli had to take medicine and he wanted to show Eli that even though he did not like it, that he could take it one sip and it would be OK. I got this moment of video and it was priceless! Owen did it, and then gagged, and then was so proud of himself for doing it. We all got a good laugh. Every day got a tad easier, and by the last day, it was only taking him about 5 minutes to get the medicine down. We all celebrated when it was over and hope that we never have to take that medicine again!
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