Hypochondria

Our Gabriel has developed a severe case of hypochondria lately. He's always coming up with some ailment that "excuses" him from what ever task is at hand. He can't eat what was cooked for dinner because his tummy hurts. He can't clean his room because his leg hurts. He can't say sorry after timeout because his heart hurts. He can't ______ because _______ hurts. You get the idea. He makes at least one trip a day to the nurse because he's "sick". We're trying to address that one.

This had been going on for quite awhile when he kept complaining about his stomach. We TOTALLY blew it off....till he puked all over the back of Stephen's truck. All I have to say about that is he's lucky he was with Dad and not me. {;-] He was over it in 24 hours and was back to his normal crying wolf behaviors very quickly.

Then I got ANOTHER call from the school nurse. He was complaining that his ear hurt and "looks like he's really sick this time" according to sweet Miss ----.

He FREAKED out when he heard me say I'd get an appointment with the Pediatrician. For the next hour he yelled at the top of his lungs, "I feel better, I don't want to go to the doctor, I. DON'T. WANT. A. SHOT!" I finally told him if he didn't stop yelling I was going to give him 2 shots. Then I explained you don't get shots for ear infections.

We got in and found out that, yes, he did in fact have an ear infection and fluid in the other ear. That explains all the "what?" going on around here. He can't hear. Then the doctor listened to his lungs and thought he also had either pneumonia or bronchitis going on. That explained a whole lot of the cranky behavior. He got to become a space man and have a breathing treatment. Being a space man was VERY cool. I looked up and saw his legs hanging off the table and all of a sudden my big boy looked so little at that moment. The breathing treatment took care of the noise in his lungs so it was not pneumonia. That was good.

We came out with a prescription for a super antibiotic, that got rid of everything that had been going on in his little body, albuteral for additional breathing treatments as needed, and a new allergy medication.

He's doing much better now, and we hope he won't miss anymore school. I'm excited for his ears to drain out so he can hear better again. I'm a little concerned about how much auditory input he's missing during class. He does still have flare ups of hypochondria on an almost daily basis. ;-}