I'm pretty sure I jinxed him. On Sunday I was out to lunch with my dear friend Lia, bragging about my robustly healthy child. We made it to January with perfect attendance. And wasn't I just the best mother ever for it.
You'd think I'd learn my lesson. The universe does not like hubris. My over the top ego trip about the good fortune we've had with Darius' health was about to smack me in the face like a whipped cream pie.
The very next day, Darius developed a most ugly cough. While he didn't have a fever, the kid sounded like he was gonna hack up a lung. At 11:30pm, he practically did. He was coughing so hard that he made himself throw up. When he emerged from the porcelain throne, Neville noticed that one of his eyes was bright red. The kid looked liked he'd been smoking pot with his blood shot eye. Only it was just one eye.
Neville, a sucker for a sick kid, told Darius that he could sleep with us for the night. Which really just means that none of us are going to get much sleep. Forty-five minutes later, Darius started screaming that his ear hurt. And I don't mean that whiny fake cry that some kids do when they are sick to get more attention. This was the real deal. The kid was in pain. With one eye already looking more and more like a cherry and with an ear throbbing in pain, we had only one choice.
It wasn't a choice I wanted to make. "Are you sure?" I said to Neville over and over. "We're going to be there for hours!" "He isn't a critical case!" "Everyone will be seen before him." But Neville, the real mother hen in this family, insisted. So we packed up (and by packed up, I mean that I put on a bra) and headed to the Emergency Room.
Sure we've been to the ER before with Darius. The first time, he was just 3 days old. That time, we weren't there for him but because of him. I pulled all of my lower back muscles when trying to push that 8.5 pounder out of my you know what. Three days after the epidural and percocet wore off, I realized I couldn't walk. That was when the ER doctor asked when I was due and I had to point to Neville, holding our newborn baby, to show the douche-bag that I already had the baby. We've also been to the ER when Darius was two and again when he was four to determine if he had a concussion after taking two serious spills. Of course, he takes after my side of the family - our giant Irish heads are not just stubborn, they also seem to be made from some crazy strong genetics. The kid didn't even end up with a bump.
This time, though, was different. We were headed to the ER because our child was sick. My worst fear was that he ruptured his ear drum from the coughing fit and was going to suffer hearing loss. I don't even know if that is possible. But when your child is screaming in pain, you think this has to be something horrible and then your mind goes to the horrible place of worst fears.
It felt like forever before we were seen. In reality it was only a couple of hours. I thanked God that we were at a private hospital. I thanked Him again for keeping Neville and I employed with great insurance. I didn't even want to imagine what it would have been like to be at the County hospital where the uninsured are forced to go. The wait times, the number of sick people, the folks who can't afford the ER but are there anyways because where can you go when it's the middle of night and your baby is sick? It reminded me why we must continue to fight for healthcare reform in this country.
Sometime around 2:30, Darius was diagnosed with an ear infection. Just your run of the mill ear infection. Since it's the kid's first ear infection, I guess he just didn't know what to expect. Or he's a really good actor and I can't judge when my kid has that whiny fake cry to get more attention. Or he can't handle pain.
Thanking God that we didn't have a real emergency that night.
Updated: For those of you who have twittered, emailed, and facebooked, Darius is back to normal. As I shuttled him to school this morning he proudly proclaimed that he couldn't wait to "see if his friends missed him." Mr. Popularity it turns out was greeted most kindly by his teachers and his friends. He's quickly learning that the hardest part of having the ear infection is having to take medicine even when he already feels better.
