Playing Possum

I used to think this was one of those universal sayings that everyone knew.  My grandparents used to say it when I was little and was pretending to sleep or pretending to be sick because I didn’t want to go to school that day.  I made the mistake of saying it to my husband once and he had no idea what I meant.  I’ve never lived it down, he researched possums online and looked for the saying and still teases me to this day.  Maybe because where he comes from there are no possums and he could never play possum to get out of school.

This morning my toddler woke up and was just lying in her crib and wasn’t bubbly like normal.  I asked her if she was ready to come downstairs and she cried and held her ear.  She kept saying her ear hurt.  So we came downstairs and I held for about an hour.  Then I made her a comfy little space on the sofa and she kept holding her ear and crying if I moved her up a bit to try to eat or drink.  She was also a bit warm.  This is a toddler who never runs out of energy and who loves to eat.  So I knew she didn’t feel well.  She stayed on the sofa all day and took a long nap and didn’t even get up to watch her brother get off the school bus.  So I called the doctor.  She has a slight hearing loss in her ear, and she had an ear infection a few weeks ago that I let go for a few days because I didn’t think it was an ear infection and then she ended up on meds.  So this time I thought let’s nip this in the bud.  Well my husband came home and she was still laying around.  Then we gave her a quick bath and went to the doctor.  As soon as we got to the doctor she was running and playing and tearing into the waiting room.  Then  we saw the doctor and her ears were fine.  Her throat was a bit red but nothing big.  So the doctor just kind of gave me the look like oh look another over worried mother rushing her child to the doctor for nothing, and I am so not like that.  I felt embarrassed but why should I, aren’t parents supposed to be taking the kids to the doctors if they seem sick?  She said it might be a virus so I said she’s no in daycare, how does she pick up ear infections and viruses all the time and the doctor goes does she go to the grocery store or ever leave the house?  Viruses are everywhere, ok I get it, you are the doctor and I am not, but you don’t need to make me feel like a moron.  So that was my day, an ill child and a doctor who thought I was playing possum with my child’s illness.

This is part of the 30 minute moms blog challenge on steadymom.com http://www.steadymom.com/