Whew.

J is better, thankfully. He started running fever on Monday, and K stayed home and took him to the doctor (for which I was greatly appreciative!). Diagnosis: ear infection and viral infection, got a prescription for Zithromax. He was still running fever on Tuesday, so I stayed home with him. And he was crying in pain, saying he hurt, he hurt. He'd fallen out of the bed on Monday morning early (which was when I found out he was running fever), and K had relayed this information to J's doctor, but I wondered if there was something going on other than the ear infection. He's never had an ear infection that had him screaming in pain. So yesterday morning I stayed home and took him back to his doctor. She was concerned there might be a sinus infection down deep in his ear, something that wouldn't show up as an ear infection (and thankfully, his ears are now clear). So we went to the hospital close to home for a CT scan and x-rays and bloodwork - yeah, all fun with a 4-year-old in pain. The CT scan didn't happen (and people who say you can make your child do stuff like that clearly have never tried to do so). X-rays - got one, but the position they wanted J's head in caused him pain, so he wasn't having anything to do with that. Bloodwork - there are needles involved, 'nuff said. The bloodwork was clear, x-ray didn't show anything, but his doc felt like we should go to the ER at Children's in Dallas for a consult with a pediatric ENT and then, if necessary, the CT scan under sedation. I cried half the way there. I didn't want my baby to have to go under sedation for a stupid CT scan. I wanted him to be well and not hurt and not be sick. K met us up there, and we went another round with yowling boy. No CT scan, just x-rays, and after poking and prodding and watching J bounce around (he was perfectly fine as long as no one was making him put his head into a position that hurt him, and not running fever), they determined he'd pulled a muscle in his neck when he fell off the bed. Alternate Motrin and Tylenol every three hours for pain, and keep an eye on him, and that's that. All that craziness for a pulled muscle. I'm very very very very thankful that's all it was, though - the last few days have put me in awe of parents whose children are terminally or seriously ill, or who have special needs. I can't imagine how they keep going, because I was worn out after just a day of fighting to get J to have an x-ray done.

I had to laugh, though. This morning I told him we were going back to school, and he started howling and told me, "Nooooooo, I need my pillow (the one he'd held up to his neck when it hurt so badly), I'm running a fever, we have to go see Dr. Jean (his pediatrician)!" LOLOL Um, no - if you're well enough to fake it, you're well enough to go to school.

And he was ready to go back to the hospital, too. They had a ginormous train layout at Children's in the entrance area - all kinds of trains and tracks with little towns and people and different scenes, with several trains going at once, and J was just agog when he saw it. He wanted to go back last night, and when I told him no, we weren't going back, he said, "We go tomorrow." Um, no. LOL

So, he's better and K and I are much relieved.

I'll write more about his party late - it was a big hoot. I can't believe my baby is four!!!