Yesterday was a pretty uneventful day, until about 3:30 in the afternoon; Chandler’s teacher from school text me to tell me that his ear is a little swollen and red. I replied, “Ok, what do you think it is?” She thought it was just a bug bite, nothing to be too concerned about, but wanted me to take a look at it when we picked him up. Grant was getting off anyway and I asked him to go ahead and pick up Chandler from school. He picked him up and then called to ask me to leave work to come look at it. Chandler is standing on the steps that lead to our garage and I no more than get out of my car and decide that he is going to the doctor. His right ear is about 6 times the normal size, beet red, warm to the touch and his cheek looks like there is a golf ball inside of it. Needless to say, I was spazzing just a bit. We all got back into the car and I called his pediatrician. Unfortunately, they do not take a walk-in at 4:15 in the afternoon. So, off to Sherwood Urgent Care we went.
This was the first time he had been there so I had to fill out all the appropriate paperwork; with that and the short wait we had to endure, it seemed like an eternity. We finally got to see the doctor. She examined his ear and came to the conclusion that he was bite by a buffalo gnat. A buffalo gnat; what the heck is that? After tons of questions from Grant and me, she assured us that is wasn’t a spider or anything dangerous like that. She told us by him being so fair, blond hair and blue eyes that he is prone to reactions like this. His body isn’t necessarily allergic to them, but his skin is. Ever since he as been able to go outside, we have always had to be precautious of mosquito bites; they tend to love biting him and make his skin red and swell. Now, it’s buffalo gnats! Who would have known?
After examining him and answering all of our questions, she gave him a shot of steroids, prescribed him an oral steroid and an antibiotic. She then dropped the bomb that I knew was coming, “Now, just so you know, the steroids will hype him up and he won’t sleep tonight.” Great, just what I love! So, after a few tears from the shot, a couple of dum dum suckers and a promised toy from Wal Mart, we were off from the doctor’s office. We then went to Wal Mart; I got in line to get his prescription filled and Grant and Chandler were off to the toy aisle. After dropping the prescriptions off, we caught up with one another, as well as, the two new cowboy pistols he picked out. The prescriptions were filled and we were off to meet some friends for dinner at IHop. Needless to say, by this time the ‘roid’s’ (that I so love to call them) had kicked into high gear and my usually laid back, cool guy was going 90 to nothing. He was telling everyone in the restaurant that he wanted his pancakes, “Now,” sliding silverware under the table and crayon sword fighting with me. I was hot, exhausted and obviously ready for this day to be over. The dreaded word’s the doctor kept telling us, ‘he won’t sleep tonight,’ kept going over and over in my head.
****I would like to take a moment now to publicly apologize to the entire staff of IHop, our dear friends Paige & Don and even little Maddie. This was obviously not the Chandler you, or any of us, know. Even though some of it was funny at the time, I’m deeply sorry for his actions last evening, even the attire he choose of snow boots, no shirt, cowboy hat and the belt holster holding his brand new pistols.****
After we finished eating and visiting later on at the house, it was time for bed; those dreaded words still going thru my exhausted head. I fixed his milk, grabbed a couple of his books and we headed to bed. At that very moment, the Heavens opened up and shined on us, he was actually ready for bed. We read his books, he drank his milk and he soundly fell asleep and slept thru the entire night. I was in complete disbelief. The crazy gnat biting day is finally over. I am now off to stock up on any and all bug repellent; I do not want him or us to go thru this again. Chalk this up to another parenting lesson learned.
This was the first time he had been there so I had to fill out all the appropriate paperwork; with that and the short wait we had to endure, it seemed like an eternity. We finally got to see the doctor. She examined his ear and came to the conclusion that he was bite by a buffalo gnat. A buffalo gnat; what the heck is that? After tons of questions from Grant and me, she assured us that is wasn’t a spider or anything dangerous like that. She told us by him being so fair, blond hair and blue eyes that he is prone to reactions like this. His body isn’t necessarily allergic to them, but his skin is. Ever since he as been able to go outside, we have always had to be precautious of mosquito bites; they tend to love biting him and make his skin red and swell. Now, it’s buffalo gnats! Who would have known?
After examining him and answering all of our questions, she gave him a shot of steroids, prescribed him an oral steroid and an antibiotic. She then dropped the bomb that I knew was coming, “Now, just so you know, the steroids will hype him up and he won’t sleep tonight.” Great, just what I love! So, after a few tears from the shot, a couple of dum dum suckers and a promised toy from Wal Mart, we were off from the doctor’s office. We then went to Wal Mart; I got in line to get his prescription filled and Grant and Chandler were off to the toy aisle. After dropping the prescriptions off, we caught up with one another, as well as, the two new cowboy pistols he picked out. The prescriptions were filled and we were off to meet some friends for dinner at IHop. Needless to say, by this time the ‘roid’s’ (that I so love to call them) had kicked into high gear and my usually laid back, cool guy was going 90 to nothing. He was telling everyone in the restaurant that he wanted his pancakes, “Now,” sliding silverware under the table and crayon sword fighting with me. I was hot, exhausted and obviously ready for this day to be over. The dreaded word’s the doctor kept telling us, ‘he won’t sleep tonight,’ kept going over and over in my head.
****I would like to take a moment now to publicly apologize to the entire staff of IHop, our dear friends Paige & Don and even little Maddie. This was obviously not the Chandler you, or any of us, know. Even though some of it was funny at the time, I’m deeply sorry for his actions last evening, even the attire he choose of snow boots, no shirt, cowboy hat and the belt holster holding his brand new pistols.****
After we finished eating and visiting later on at the house, it was time for bed; those dreaded words still going thru my exhausted head. I fixed his milk, grabbed a couple of his books and we headed to bed. At that very moment, the Heavens opened up and shined on us, he was actually ready for bed. We read his books, he drank his milk and he soundly fell asleep and slept thru the entire night. I was in complete disbelief. The crazy gnat biting day is finally over. I am now off to stock up on any and all bug repellent; I do not want him or us to go thru this again. Chalk this up to another parenting lesson learned.
(With all the craziness, I never thought once to pull out my camera until this morning. These pictures are from this morning, about 36 hours after the dreaded bite. Moms - watch out!)
1 comment:
No apologies needed dear friend. As parents we all have those times. At least he was pretty funny! Love ya
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