As planned, I took Breanna to the clinic today because it was absolutely necessary to see if she needed more than just rest and fluids. Once again she had woken up last night, about half an hour after falling asleep and she was freaking out, so I brought her out to the living room – partly because I was right in the middle of catching up on some work and partly because I didn’t want her to wake up Hayley who was exhausted beyond belief after Carnival day at school yesterday.

She sat up for a few minutes, then fell asleep sitting up. Her head kept flopping over and she’d do that jerking thing with her head, similar to the way people do when they fall asleep on the bus or metro (I used to do that *all the time* when I had early classes in college, it was so embarrassing). I did try to get her to lie down on a pile of pillows to prop her up, but she got angry so I left her alone, after taking her picture of course. Eventually she flopped right over and I covered her up while she slept for an hour or so until I finished working and took her back to bed.

When we went in today I fully expected to walk out with antibiotics because I was sure that she had bronchitis again. We did indeed get the antibiotics, but it was for a double ear infection. I had no idea, we’ve never experienced those with either of the kids before. She had none of the usual obvious signs – she didn’t have a fever and she had no ear pain whatsoever. However, sure enough, her right ear had a raging infection and the left had the start of a small one. Awesome.

As for the cough, she told me to just make sure Breanna drinks a lot of fluids. She said the tonsils and back of her throat were a bit inflamed but not infected, and said that even if it did start to develop into tonsillitis, the antibiotics we were getting would take care of that too.

Poor kid.

Even worse, after she had her nap and some lunch, I prepped her first dose of the antibiotics. I have always, ALWAYS tasted medicine before giving it to my kids. Holy GOD. That was the worse medicine I have ever had the misfortune to taste test. Awful doesn’t even cut it. Let me put it to you this way: Have you ever taken that nasty rocket fuel Buckley’s for a cough? You know how it works by tasting so incredibly disgusting that it scares the germs away?

Buckley’s tastes like frickin’ CANDY compared to this stuff.

I had no idea how I was going to pull it off, but I forgot that Breanna is a trooper through and through. The first dose was a big one, bigger than the rest are, so I used the syringe to unload about half of it into her mouth – and I’m not mean, I warned her first that it didn’t taste very good, because I didn’t want to have her spit it all back out in horror. She shuddered and her eyes bulged out, but she got it down, and did the same for the second half. There was a lot of gasping and noise-making as she ran to the kitchen with me to have some water and eat another bite of her lunch to get rid of it, but she did it. Hopefully she’ll be just as tough tomorrow, now that she knows what to expect.

A.W.F.U.L. If life was a horror movie, that stuff would be the top secret government lab experiment gone wrong that accidentally gets leaked out and turns people into flesh-eating, brain-guzzling zombies that need to be shot and burned and scattered in three separate locations.

(What? What do you mean I need to stop watching so many horror movies? I have no idea what you’re talking about!)

The good news of the day was that the clinic is right across from a Tim Horton’s and I had five bucks in my pocket so I bought six and ate one with my coffee when I got back home at 9 o’clock. Not the usual healthy breakfast that I have every day, but hey, when I’ve had two sick kids in a row with overlap and everything, I think I deserve a double chocolate glazed donut with my coffee!