Another day, another hospital

So Owen's been sick all this week. Drippy nose, constant cough, and overall fussiness because he feels so crappy. Since he had been pulling at his ears, I decided to take him in to an Urgent Care place today instead of waiting for the pediatrician to see him tomorrow.

While Ben mowed the lawn, Owen and I headed over to the Urgent Care center. Luckily we didn't have to wait long, especially since he had a meltdown in the waiting room. The nurse took his vitals and soon after, the doctor came in. She said he had some bumps on the back of his throat which could mean strep, so they did a throat culture. After looking in his ears, she said they looked dull, meaning a double-ear infection is pretty much starting. She then listened to his chest and said she wanted to do a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia. He actually did really well during the x-ray. The doctor looked at it and told me they saw a small patch that could be pneumonia, but we'd have to go over to the hospital for their radiologists to look at it and make sure. Just in case, she had the nurse give him a shot of antibiotics to treat both the on-coming ear infections and the possible pneumonia. Poor little man screamed his head off during the shot. This nurse was definitely not as talented with a syringe as the one at the pediatrician's office last week.

By this time it was 12pm and we were both hungry and sick of being in a doctor's office. We had to wait 20 minutes for the meds to get in him so they could make sure he didn't have an allergic reaction. I wasn't looking forward to the wait I was anticipating at the Emergency Room.

We were finally discharged at 12:30 and after calling Ben to ask him to pick up McDonald's for us, we checked in at the hospital at 12:49. We only waited for 5 minutes before being taken back, and as the nurse took his vitals, Ben walked in with lunch. We got to eat and Owen was entertained with his mini-skateboard Happy Meal toy, while we waited for the doctor. He said he didn't see any signs of pneumonia on the x-ray (the Urgent Care place had given me a CD to show him) but that it did look like a double-ear infection was coming on. Armed with a prescription for a Z-pack, we finally drove home around 1:45.

We're all sick of Owen being sick. Hopefully with this medicine, he'll be feeling like himself again within a few days.