Home > Charm Chicks > Archives > 2009 > October > 29 > Entry
Should I stay or should I go now……
BY JENNY WHITE
The only thing worse than having a sick child is having a “kind-of” sick child.
At least if you’re a working mom and you have to decide what to do with them at 7 a.m., before you’ve had coffee.
When they have a fever, or are puking their guts out, it’s easy to decide what to do. The answer is in technicolor, floating in the toilet or all over the sheets, or in a bright red display on the thermometer.
But when they appear to be OK, just fussy and congested and just-not-feeling-good, it gets a little gray. And no matter what you decide, it sucks.
If I stay home, usually the child in question makes a miraculous recovery and I wind up thinking I missed a day of work, for, well, pretty much no good reason (OF COURSE, my kids are a good reason, but you know what I mean).
If I go on to work and send child to school/daycare, the inevitable worry and guilt comes over me, wondering how my baby is doing and if he/she is OK. Wondering if they’re getting sicker and if it’s all my fault.
Then there’s this: Do they need to go the doctor?
It’s easier with Thomas, because he can talk to me. Usually if he’s complaining, he needs to see Dr. Grant, our pediatrician.
With Emma it’s harder because I don’t know if she’s crying because she’s mad her socks are on the wrong feet or if her head has a splitting headache. I KNOW she doesn’t feel good, but is it just a normal cold, or does she have pneumonia or something equally bad? Like the DREADED EAR INFECTION. For those that don’t know, ear infections can cause ear-splitting (pardon the pun) cries like you’ve never heard before. Pretty much continuously, until you get them on antibiotics. When Emma has an ear infection, we pretty much go straight from doctor’s office, to Almand’s drugstore to get prescription, to home, to getting the antibiotics in her system ASAP! There is no dropping off of prescription to pick up later. YOU GET THE PRESCRIPTION FILLED PRONTO!
I love Dr. Grant, but what seems like a “productive” cough to him always sounds like the worst case of bronchitis with pneumonia and croup and probably a little pleurisy thrown in too, to me. And don’t get me started on worrying about the Flu/H1N1. (My kids have been vaccinated, so they’re not supposed to get that, right?)
I know from experience with Thomas, that Dr. Grant is always right and it’s just a cold and goes away after a few weeks, but, still, even after ten years of this with Thomas, I hate not knowing exactly what’s wrong and “waiting it out.”
HATE IT!
Anyway, as you can tell, I’m here at work.
Feeling guilty.
Do you see this runny nose? I can’t believe my mom made me go to daycare today. I should be home in bed!
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