Errol’s Cinco de Mayo started with a wonderful mid-morning horseback ride, but went downhill from there. When Cary picked Errol up from school this afternoon his teacher was concerned about his eye and his cough. Cary was too, and she drove Errol right over to Doctor Hunsinger who diagnosed him with pink eye, and an ear infection. She’s also concerned about his aspiration, which could lead (and, in the past has led) to pneumonia.
Sure enough, Errol has been feeling pretty lousy and has had a hell of a cough for almost a week, and now we know why. To heal our boy, the doctor gave Errol two shots, two eye drops, and one penguin nebulizer.
A nebulizer is a high tech vaporizer that fogs medicine directly into the patient’s face. It’s known more widely by its scientific name: bong. Some marketing genius came up with the brilliant idea that if you designed a nebulizer to look like a penguin, it would distract the nebulizee from the fact that he was face to face with a machine that rumbles like a jet plane and shoots jets of steam from it’s belly. Call me crazy, but if a penguin tried to froth a latte on my face, I would be pissed! Errol didn’t mind, though. Not even a single “Uh-oh!”
A double infection and incipient pneumonia is, of course, nothing for Errol.
He’s had worse. But the poor little fellow was wiped out by his many maladies and after his pilgrimage to the doctor he could barely muster the energy to laugh as I made animal noises and galloped around the room (don’t ask).
Every time Errol gets sick his mother, Owen, and I get worked into a tizzy. It's hard not to remember the horrible months spent in the hospital. Its hard to forget Errol's sweet little arms poked full of holes. I get a knot in my chest when Errol gets sick.
Errol is asleep now (without a single coughing fit!) and we hope that his penguin has put him onto the road to recovery. We’ll keep you updated.
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