Oh please no!

I know I never did a Thanksgiving recap (and recalling history, if I haven't done it by now, I probably won't), but Luke arrived in Brunswick the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (I was already there) sporting a drippy ear and a fever, i.e. an ear infection. This was a month to the day after starting antibiotics for a previous ear infection in mid-October.

So I spent that Tuesday night, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, scrambling around online (since all the "help lines" were closed due to it being "after hours"), trying to find a doctor who took our insurance in a town where no company offers said insurance. Finally found one, so we headed out first thing Wednesday morning (Thanksgiving Eve, if you will) to be there when their office opened for walk-ins, information they thankfully gave on their office answering machine when I called the previous evening. We confirmed with the office staff that they do indeed accept our insurance, and filled out all of the relevant "new patient" information, even though we (hopefully!) will never see this doctor again. We even got a "wow, I've never seen that before" from the doctor. She could actually see fluid dripping out of the tube; usually it's too gunky and inflamed to see the fluid physically oozing out. At least we got to be a novelty for her. [Aside: Just for the record, we received notice from the insurance company this week saying they wouldn't pay for that doctor visit since it was "out of network," despite the fact that I chose this particular doctor because they came up during a search on the insurance company website for doctors in the area who accept on our plan. Recall that the office staff *also* confirmed they accept it before we saw the doctor. ????!!! Yes, we're going to appeal.] Anyway!

It has now been only *four* weeks (minus a day) since seeing the doctor for that second ear infection, and Luke is coughing. Inevitably, a cough like this leads to an ear infection, again if history is correct. Which means he won't come down with a fever until Saturday sometime, and we'll have to try and get a doctor's appointment on Monday. That would be Christmas Eve, for those keeping score at home. I see only one of two possible outcomes, given our current luck: either the office will be closed that day and/or no sick appointments will be available (same result, regardless), or we will get an appointment only to be told that they don't see any sign of an ear infection and send us home without antibiotics, and he'll wake up Christmas morning with a drippy ear because we were there "too soon" for it to show (like our first October doctor visit, remember?).

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why did we even BOTHER with the tubes if they are NOT helping??!!!

BTW, thank you all for the well wishes. Job is going well so far. It remains to be seen if that will still hold after the holidays, when they give me my first actual project to manage.

Currently feeling: SOOO tired of dealing with his ears (Mom, stop laughing)