Eye Infection (Bad Mommy)

After a fun-filled weekend of Dutch Wonderland and 4th of July BBQ, on Sunday morning Ivan woke up with a somewhat puffy eye with a huge sleep in it.

"Hm, that's unusual. He's never had sleep in his eyes before," I thought, but then promptly dismissed it as no big deal.

We got ready when mattress shopping, which was Sunday's agenda. Ivan had a great time, running around in mattress stores, jumping on beds (much to the chargin of salemen who were helping us). But the sleep kept returning to his eye, even after we'd clean it off. By the end of the day, it was clear that something was wrong.

On Monday morning, Andy took him to the doctor's. "Eye and ear infection," the doctor said.

I did notice earlier in the week that his right ear seemed to be dirtier than usual and that he wouldn't let me clean it, but I dismissed it as him being propriatery of his body. (It goes along with all things "ma," or mine.)

Andy opted to stay home with him on Monday and Tuesday, while the highly-contagious eye infection clears up mainly because he thought he'd have an easier time wrestling with Ivan to get him to take antibiotic syrup and administer eyedrops.

Otherwise, Ivan was in good spirits, and they actually had fun together.

Then he woke up on Tuesday night around 11 p.m. screaming "dadi, dadi, mami, mami." He was hot and sweating, running a fever over 103F.

After getting some chewable Tylanol, he calmed down and fell asleep in our bed, snuggled against Andy. (He wouldn't return to his crib.)

In the morning, he was fine, chipper and his usually bubbly morning self, so we decided to take him to daycare.

While we were talking to Ms. Yvonne, trying to find some form to sign so that she could administer eyedrops, Ivan's mood changed. Suddenly, he seemed kind of lost, standing sad, confused, gripping his arms in the middle of the room. Ms. Yvonne decided to take his temperature. He went completely limp in her arms, as the thermometer kept climbing and climbing above 101F.

It was time to take him home. I felt like such an awful failure mommy. What was I thinking of sending him to daycare.

On the way home, we called the doctor's office. They wanted to see him. The doctor said that his eyes and ears look much better (and that had she not seem him on Monday in the throws of the infection, she wouldn't think he had one now) but that his throat was "terrible." Hence the fever. He was fighting something. It wasn't strep, she said, because the antibiotics would kill it. She took a finger prick blood sample to check for viral or other bacterial infection. Surprisingly enough, the nurse who pricked Ivan was so smooth that he didn't even realize she pricked him. Instead he was very, very intrigued to watch her collect droplets of blood.
The blood test came back normal for both infections. So the bottom line was that he's fighting something that either the antibiotics are taking care of (e.g. bacterial infection) or his own immune system (viral infection.)

I stayed home with him yesterday and today. He had a little bit of a fever last night. Otherwise, he's been fine--alert, happy, chipper. His bubbly self.


Getting Ivan to take his antibiotic syrup and his eyedrops has been quite a challenge. For the first eyedrops, Ivan let Andy put eyedrops in one eye very willingly. And that was it. "Trust has been broken," Andy told me. It was hard to put the drops in the second eye.

So, Andy devised a tatoo system. It kind of worked on Monday. After administering him eyedrops and getting him to take his "candy medicine," which must taste awful because he absolutely refuses to drink it, Ivan gets a tattoo. It worked on Monday day.


On Monday evening, we eventually bribed him to administer eyedrops (it was a two person job, this time) and take the syrup. He wouldn't drink it from the spoon, so we wrestled him down and used a syringe to squirt it down his throat. He got a tatoo and a cookie. It was supposed to be one or the other, but he got both.

On Tuesday, the same deal: tattoo for eyedrops and syrup. Eye drops got easier, while syrop was a deal breaker. It must really taste nasty.

On Wednesday evening, Ivan asked for a tattoo, after he took his medicine, without Andy mentioning the tattoo ahead of time. A quick study.

Today, I had to wrestle with him to administer the drops during the day. It wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. I don't blame him. I don't like eyedrops in my eyes, either, and I'm a rational adult.