the Bachlers

the Bachlers
December 2008

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Lesson of Take Your Medicine



So here is this seemingly cute little three year old playing doctor. Who could pass up getting her this dress up when her dad is a PA? Anyway, she loves to "listen" to your heart beat, and with this new outfit came a prescription pad. That is what she is handing to me . . . my prescription. How ironic!

Let a month go by, and she comes down with a whopping head cold. One day she begins crying and tugging at her ear. She has never done this before and I take her to the doctor. He discovers both ears are infected. So he prescribes an oral antibiotic. I tell the doctor she has quit taking any kind of medication and inquire about getting a shot. The doctor explains this would be a series of one shot for three days. Ah, we'll try to force feed the medication. We are scheduled to return in two weeks. I pick up the antibiotic and ear drops at the pharmacy.

Levi struggles with the idea of giving her an antibiotic with an ear infection which she never did complain about after leaving the doc's office. We half heartedly try to get her to take the oral meds and she continues to refuse. Her head cold gets worse and she has fevers and chills, but still never complains about her ear or anything. For the next two weeks she either slept in our bed, or made her demands to go downstairs and we (meaning Aly and I) slept in the recliner.

Two weeks have passed and I return to the doctor to explain that she never took the meds, but she did take some Advil the night before. Levi caught her at a groggy moment when she didn't fight. Our doctor looks at her ears and explains they are still infected. He goes on to tell me that they have found that in some cases ear infections have gone on to meningitis with small children. OK, that got my attention and I got serious about the fact that Aly needed the meds. Back to the pharmacy because the original meds was no longer viable.




That was Thursday. Do you think we could get Aly to take the medication? We tried various ways to slip it to her, but she was sly to our ways. I even tried to force it in with a syringe, but she coughed and sputtered and it all came back out. (wardrobe change!) We can't imagine where she gets her hard headedness from. So on Sunday, Levi checked her ears and they were still infected. Monday we were back at the doctor's office.

Aly went along with things for the first shot, but cried as soon as the needle went in. Then to add insult to injury we had to wait 15 - 20 minutes before we could leave to make sure she didn't have a reaction. Today she got her second shot. She doesn't mind going to the doctor's office because she can watch PBS in the waiting room. She got nervous when we were called back to the room, but she didn't begin to cry until the nurse came in with the medicine tray. And again we had to wait the fifteen minutes before they would let us leave.

One more day of the tears and betrayal. I just hope she learns her lesson. I have tried to re-enforce the reason she is getting the shots is because she wouldn't take her medicine. My only fear is that by the time she gets sick again and needs acetometifen or ibuprofen she won't really remember the consequences of her actions. We'll just have to wait and see.

3 comments:

Mandi Brown said...

so adorable, I am glad we got to see you guys and yes Aly is on the list.

Erica said...

Oh my! That Aly is one determined little thing. Now if only you can channel that determination toward the things that you want...hmmmm...I think we may have the same challenge with our Kate. Good thing they are so dang cute. I laughed out loud when I read your story about Aly being the primary spotlight on my blog...so funny. Thank you for sharing! I miss you!

Donna said...

Karen
What a sweetheart you have. I have the same problem with my little old ladies refusing their meds..lol