Cruel and Unusual Punishment

My poor girl has been sick since Tuesday with a low grade fever that has come and gone.  On Friday evening Kiersta started complaining about her ear hurting.  This is a girl who has suffered from ear infections from infancy and had tubes placed in both ears when she was just over a year old.  I knew we were going to be in for a long night.   Unfortunately I was right. 

Lots of tears, thrashing around, and screaming were to be heard from our bedroom that night.  

Luckily, Kiersta's pediatrician has Saturday morning hours.  We got the official diagnosis of "nasty ear infection."  The doctor offered us chewable tablets instead of the liquid we were used to giving Kiersta in these situations.  We pounced on the idea as Kiersta is not a fan of the liquid medication.

We went to a pharmacy to have the prescription filled but they were out.  Kiersta's fever was rising, I was exhausted from a night of little sleep, but off we headed to another pharmacy several miles away.  Yes!  They had what we were looking for in stock.  We were told that they didn't know how it would taste, but I figured this medicine was designed for kids, so how bad could it be?  40 minutes later we finally had our prescription in hand.  At this point we were both really tired and hungry as it was well past lunch time.   The only good thing about the long wait is that we got Kiersta's birthday party planned and booked at the gymnastics center located around the corner from the pharmacy.

We got home and I opened the pills.  EWWWWWWW!  Gross!  They smelled just like penicillan, there was no flavoring at all and I had to have my poor girl chew these up twice a day for 10 days.  More tears, on both our parts, and attempts at making pill and cookie sandwiches finally got the medicine down.  At this rate, this was going to be a long 10 days. Saturday night Kiersta tried the pill with apple sauce but it was still a long process.  Today went much better though.  She ate her pills with yogurt by dipping the pill into the yogurt and then taking tiny bites.  No tears and she ate them up like the big girl she is.

So my question is, who is the idiot who made chewable antibiotics for kids that are medicine flavored????  Next time I think we'll go back to the liquid medicine that can be flavored.

Kiersta still has her fever but her ear isn't hurting anymore.   To make matters worse though, tomorrow is her 5th birthday and she still can't go to her school to celebrate her birthday (and Dr. Suess's) with her friends and classmates.  Hopefully she'll feel up to dinner with the family and a trip to Baskin-Robbins afterward.

Here's Kiersta in her pajamas that she has worn all day long after eating her pill with yogurt.  No tears!  Tomorrow she will be 5!!!