Misery.

The last few days have been pretty rough around here. It all started Saturday night. Josh, the boys, and I were out at dinner when both Josh and I noticed that Colton's breath was pretty rank...and when I say rank, I mean flat out nasty.  My maternal gut was a little worried that something was up (especially considering that we were eating Italian food and that hadn't even disguised his grossness!), but we crossed our fingers that maybe his 2-year old teeth brushing wasn't quite up to par (we have been letting him take more a lead in this lately).
Well, the next morning, Colton woke up with a fever and looked pretty darn miserable. I was convinced he had strep and with school starting on Wednesday, I wanted to get him in so he could start the 48-hour antibiotic run and not miss the first day. We went to Patient First that morning and while he didn't have strep, the doctor there did say he had "angry tonsils" and that she felt comfortable prescribing him an antibiotic to go ahead and knock out the infection his little body was battling. Super...right?

Well, we got home with Colton's medicine and went to give him his first dose and he freaked. I don't know if it was the taste (although he hadn't even really tasted it yet), or if his throat hurt so bad that he didn't want to swallow, or if he was just in a particularly fussy mood because he didn't feel good, but he was literally hysterical and refusing to take it. Josh ended up teaching him how to do a shot and that, combined with a promise of gummy bears when he finished, worked...once.
But throughout the day, his reaction to the medicine got worse and worse and none of our tricks seemed to be working...bribery, drinking it out of a cup, even mixing it with ice cream. By night time, we were at our wit's end. It was also at that point that his fever began to spike...getting up to as high as 104. But just like he wouldn't take the antibiotic, he had also decided he wouldn't take Tylenol and/or Motrin (despite previously liking their grape/bubble gum flavor). I was freaking out, and even attempted forcing it down him as I had read on various mom sites to do....well, he threw it all up! And I was desperate, so I called his pediatrician who told me he could come in the next morning for a shot instead of the antibiotics, BUT that we had to get the Tylenol in him somehow. If he wouldn't take the liquid form, we would either have to give it to him in a suppository form (after tracking down a 24-hour pharmacy) or take him to the children's hospital for an IV.
Well, miracle of miracles, we attempted one last time to mix his Tylenol with just a little chocolate milk and the boy drank it. We kept him up about an hour and his fever slowly started coming down, and by the time we put him to bed, it was at 99...HALLELUJAH!  But as became our reality for the next few days, that relief was short-lived.  We went through these medicine battles every 4-6 hours like clock work.

The next day I took him back to the doctor...his doctor this time...in hopes that they could give him that elusive antibiotic shot.  She quickly determined that he did indeed have a nasty case of tonsillitis, gave him the shot (another dose of pure misery as he SCREAMED the entire time), and we were on our way.  Throughout the morning, his fever stayed away, but when he woke up from his nap around 5, it was back with a vengeance...which mean it was time for another medicine battle.  It was then that I got lucky/had an epiphany.  You know those freezer pops?  These guys...

                           

Well I was taking some out of the pantry to put in the freezer for his poor throat when it hit me that those things are nothing but sugar water.  I figured if I put about half the "juice" in a cup and mixed his Tylenol/Motrin in there, he would drink it (PS: he was already wary of our attempts to put it in his regular juice and/or just give it to him in the syringe thing despite the fact that medicine really doesn't taste bad; I think he was just over it/a 2-year-old!).  After letting him pick his flavor, and pick his straw color, he sucked that stuff right down!!!  Aaahh, huge sigh of relief, especially when the same trick worked the next morning as well.  

But that afternoon, our honeymoon was over.  Luckily, Colton's fever was staying away, but with school starting the next day, I didn't want to take any chance.  Plus, I was still noticing a pretty drastic mood shift and cranky spell that I attributed to a pretty sore throat (someone later told me that tonsillitis feels like needles poking in your throat...my poor baby!), so we had one more medicine battle...an epic 45-minute bout.

But the next morning...the first day of school...he woke up with no fever.  We sent him to school and he came out smiling.  And came home and wanted to play outside when he got home.  And best of all, my Colton was back...the smiling, playful, loving little boy...not the whiny, cranky version that had been with us for the last few days. 

My take-home lesson from the last few days: there is absolutely nothing worse than a sick child!  It is such a helpless, sad experience...not to mention frustrating, and totally stressful.  It sure is a huge relief to be returning to normal...hopefully we won't have to deal with another incident for awhile!