On Sunday we braved the gauntlet of bureaucracy and managed to get Max into see the on-call doctor. I was nervous that nothing would be wrong with Max and that the doctor would be mad at us for calling him in on a Sunday. Greta insisted, so I acquiesced. I'm glad she did. Turns out Max had a raging ear infection. (He also had a chest cold, but we knew that already.) He'd had the ear infection for at least a day prior and probably a lot longer than that. While his sleep problems were already diminishing due to our ruthless Ferberization, things became much easier once we finally got him on antibiotics.
Interesting post-script: Max has been playing with his ears for months now. We were afraid that his ears had been plugged with wax and that his hearing might suffer because of it. However, we avoided taking him to the doctor because of the intimidation and bureaucracy mentioned above, opting instead to wait until his annual check-up in one week's time.
Conveniently, however, the on-call doctor was also able to inform us that Max has almost zero wax in his ears. I recall a certain MD in our family with a malfunctioning otoscope who diagnosed Max with an advanced case of excessive ear wax and thereby scaring the daylight out of us. I won't mention any names. But this is the same MD who flushed my ears with a razor sharp syringe while we were stranded deep within some wildlife reserve in Uganda. I don't know why I go to him.
I am really glad to "hear" Max is doing better on the sleep and the pain front. I hear Greta is helping the medicine go down with a chocolate mini egg. Very Mary Poppins of her.
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