Helpless

Lillian hasn't been feeling well for a couple days, and it makes me feel so helpless. She's had a fever that, first, we chalked up to teething since she's pushing a couple through. But after three days, I decided it was time to see a doctor. It's just so hard when the invalid can't tell you what's wrong or how to help. We've spent a lot of time the last couple days just cuddling since that seems to be the only thing that makes her feel better. Don't get me wrong...I love cuddling. But the reason just makes my heart break.

She seemed to be feeling better this morning, and she slept a little better last night, so I went ahead and took her to daycare and headed to work. But about 11:00, our sitter called to say that she woke up from her nap with a fever of 103. We went straight from there to the doctor. After a quick elimination of a vaccine reaction or ear infection, he looked at her throat, where his suspicions were confirmed - or so he said. My question is, if he suspected Strep to start out with, why start with the ears? He did the quick office culture, and it came back negative. But he says that's common, so he wanted to start treatment anyway until the full culture comes back in two days, especially since the high fever and the redness in her face still suggest Strep, not just a viral sore throat.

If only she could have said, "My throat hurts." Instead, I've been thinking her appetite isn't great just because she's not feeling 100%...which has happened in the past. Now I feel so bad that she's suffered longer than she really needed to 'cause I thought it would pass on its own. Do they offer mind reading classes at the University?