So I'm here today to tell you that if you are a mother you need to always, ALWAYS trust those mommy instincts. Don't let the doubt cast a shadow over what you already know. Don't let anyone else tell you that you are wrong. EVEN if that person has a white coat and his or her title begins with a "D" and an "R".
Last week you heard me rant on and on about how my world was all out of sorts. About how I knew (I knew!) that William had an ear infection. Fever, no appetite, restless sleeping and endless crying. And most of all I could see it in his eyes or "windows" as my latest novel is calling them. But they're more than windows into the soul. Eyes tell it all and they especially tell it all when you're sick.
My mommy radar was sounding all alarms. "WHOOP! WHOOP!" And on Thursday I let some lady, who had never seen William before and knew nothing about his history, tell me to ignore those alarms. Even as she was trying to check his ears and he was yelping out in pain, she told me they were fine. Uh huh.
So feeling rather defeated and a bit hopeless with the situation, I let Brian bring William back into the clinic on Saturday morning without me. This time William saw a nurse practitioner who had seen him in the past.
Let me pause this story for just a minute to applaud nurse practitioners. I love nurse practitioners. They bring the human factor back in to everyday check-ups. I love how William's regular physician (who isn't a physician at all but rather one of these nurse practitioners) throws away the checklist and gets down to his eye level and really gets to know him for who he is. When I raise concerns she is constantly reassuring me with phrases like, "Well that's just normal for him and who he is." I love that! Don't get me wrong, I think doctors definitely have their place and God knows they did wonders for him when he was in the NICU, but for everyday checkups, I'm all about the nurse practitioners.
Ok, unpause. So Brian's in with this nurse practitioner (different person than his regular one) and she checks his left ear (the one that I knew was infected) and William, such a good little boy, winces at the pain probably knowing it just has to be done. She says, yep, it's pretty bad. She prescribed the highest level of antibiotics (seeing as this is his third infections in just six weeks) and a bottle of numbing drops.
I'm reminded again, and you should be too, that no one knows your child better than you do. And before they are of age to communicate exactly what they feel, what hurts and what doesn't, we have the responsibility to take the signs we're given and to be the advocates of their little bodies.
Because William's infection was so bad it's taking a while longer than normal to get our energetic little boy back but he's coming around. I'm sure by the end of the week we'll be outside running around in the sunshine.
Last week you heard me rant on and on about how my world was all out of sorts. About how I knew (I knew!) that William had an ear infection. Fever, no appetite, restless sleeping and endless crying. And most of all I could see it in his eyes or "windows" as my latest novel is calling them. But they're more than windows into the soul. Eyes tell it all and they especially tell it all when you're sick.
My mommy radar was sounding all alarms. "WHOOP! WHOOP!" And on Thursday I let some lady, who had never seen William before and knew nothing about his history, tell me to ignore those alarms. Even as she was trying to check his ears and he was yelping out in pain, she told me they were fine. Uh huh.
So feeling rather defeated and a bit hopeless with the situation, I let Brian bring William back into the clinic on Saturday morning without me. This time William saw a nurse practitioner who had seen him in the past.
Let me pause this story for just a minute to applaud nurse practitioners. I love nurse practitioners. They bring the human factor back in to everyday check-ups. I love how William's regular physician (who isn't a physician at all but rather one of these nurse practitioners) throws away the checklist and gets down to his eye level and really gets to know him for who he is. When I raise concerns she is constantly reassuring me with phrases like, "Well that's just normal for him and who he is." I love that! Don't get me wrong, I think doctors definitely have their place and God knows they did wonders for him when he was in the NICU, but for everyday checkups, I'm all about the nurse practitioners.
Ok, unpause. So Brian's in with this nurse practitioner (different person than his regular one) and she checks his left ear (the one that I knew was infected) and William, such a good little boy, winces at the pain probably knowing it just has to be done. She says, yep, it's pretty bad. She prescribed the highest level of antibiotics (seeing as this is his third infections in just six weeks) and a bottle of numbing drops.
I'm reminded again, and you should be too, that no one knows your child better than you do. And before they are of age to communicate exactly what they feel, what hurts and what doesn't, we have the responsibility to take the signs we're given and to be the advocates of their little bodies.
Because William's infection was so bad it's taking a while longer than normal to get our energetic little boy back but he's coming around. I'm sure by the end of the week we'll be outside running around in the sunshine.
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