Aaaahhhh...Fricka, Fracka, Filth and Foul!

So very frustrating. By yesterday afternoon Avery seemed to be taking a turn for the worse instead of better. His chest seemed heavy and his cough deep. He added a fever to his ailments and it was pretty high and he was so very restless all. night. long. I had an appointment with the kids' dr. for Lillie this morning already scheduled - it was her 9 mo. check-up. So I called the office to see if they would be able to squeeze Avery in there as well so that we could nip this thing in the bud - as Barney Fife would say.

Oh yeah, did I tell you that Avery has a terrible fear of the dr's office? Well, ever since his bought with RSV/ear infections/blocked ear canals from last year (yes I said last year!) he does not like to hear the name of his dr. even mentioned. I can't say that I blame him - the poor little guy got poked and proded and even got a bloody ear out of the whole deal last year. It was quite traumatic for both of us. Last night I told Avery that we were going to see the dr. and he kept telling me in a very calm yet matter-of-fact manner, "no. I not go there."

So I dropped it - fast forward to this morning. Avery slept in much later than he ever has as a result from his fitful night of sleep. By the time I got him dressed it was pretty much time to head out the door. As we were heading down the stairs toward the garage Avery asks, "Where we going?" I told him. He hesitated in his next step and said, "oh.....ok." Whew. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I had anticipated. heh, heh...not so fast mom.

We open the van door and my oldest offers this most helpful comment, "Oh yeah, remember? Avery hates the doctor." I bet you can imagine the dirty look that I shot him, pretty much made him close his mouth instantly and follow it up with glorifying the doctor's office and the stickers and then there are the stickers and did you know you get a sticker when your done Avery? Yeah, he really could offer much to him that would intice him into it.

So I drop off the older two with my grandma and then head down the street to the office. Once we pull into the parking lot Avery starts to withdrawl similar to how an animal reacts as you pull into the vet. I am holding Lillie and at this point Avery is taking my hand and walking into the doctors but he is already wimpering.

I may need to just sum it up at this point and skip all the gorey details mostly because I am trying to block them from my own memory. I do know that Avery covered his ears the whole time he was in the presence of a medical professional. I also know that he climbed me like a monkey in a tree and wound himself around me in the tightest death grip known to a 3 year old. He screamed, he cried and he did it some more just to be sure we all knew his position. Lillie was demoted to the floor for a good majority of the time and she ended up having to do her examination on the table without me because of her monkey brother....which made her not the least bit happy - to further compound the "irrational" fears of her older brother that there was nothing to look forward to at the doctor! I had two children in tears and the doctor and his resident trying to help me get the two crying kids examined. Between the three of us - we barely made it.

And we went through all of this to hear that Avery has a cold.............can I begin to tell you how frustrating this is. Not that I had hoped that Avery had some terrible disease, but really we went through all of this just to hear that there is nothing you can do to help? Really, if I would have just waited a day or so we probably could have kicked it at home? We ruined Lillie's check-up experience for nothing, much less put Avery through all this drama - I mean trauma? Ok, in the future, Avery isn't going back to the doctor until he is on death's door, because really I don't think the process could be handled by either him or me.