thank goodness Daddy's on the way home

True to form any time Jimmy's on a long trip, we ended up in the ER this morning. Mac was fine all day yesterday - no complaints at all until about 9pm when he told me he had a sore throat. I gave him some hot salty water to gargle - my family's sore throat remedy - and sent him off to bed. He whimpered all night long and finally in the middle of the night I gave him some Advil, thinking that would quiet him down. That was wishful thinking.

This morning when I got up, I did a cursory temperature check on the forehead and he didn't seem hot, but an hour or so later, I checked his temperature - 102.2 - and I looked in his throat with a flashlight - very red and puffy and I could see some white pustules.

I decided to take him to the ER because my again wishful thinking was that if I could get the antibiotics started early this morning, he'd have 24 hours under his belt before school tomorrow. In mother language, that means he could return to school.

So much for that wishful thinking.

The doctor in the ER diagnosed "infection" but she didn't do a strep test, so I don't know if it's strep or what. To bring the fever down quickly, she gave him a big shot right in the backside - which I'm sure everybody else in the hospital thought was somebody having their leg sawed off without anesthesia based on the screaming coming out of his mouth, long after the shot was done. Seeing as it's Oscars night, I really thought his performance could win the "Best Dramatic Performance in a Hospital" Oscar.

Then the doctor told me what no mother wants to hear: he will need to stay home from school tomorrow and Tuesday. She spoke English so I can't pretend I didn't understand. I can hardly believe that she's not just being overly cautious.

Armed with our imaginary trophy and a prescription for zithromax, we left the hospital and Mac, true to his dramatic tendencies, limped along and dragged his leg behind him until we got to the car.

I'm planning to take him to the embassy's health unit in the morning for a second opinion on both the diagnosis and the medicine he was prescribed, but most importantly, to confirm that it's okay - assuming, of course, that he's fever-free for 24 hours - that he goes back to school on Tuesday. This is one tired moma!!