Little bear 'much better now'

Little bear was not looking unduly out of sorts, but perhaps a little tired when I dropped him off at nursery. Then at 4pm I got a phone call, he was running an extremely high temperature.

I dashed out, forgetting to do all sorts except lock the door, and raced to the nursery. Little bear was listless, pink cheeked and not happy. He felt poorly, and he wasn't happy. The nursery had taken his t shirt off and he was red hot.

A few weeks ago the nice dr had said that he had come close to admitting little bear due to the high temperature, and he was looking so poorly, so I called dear heart (who has been an absolute rock throughout all this) and we went to A&E.

A&E was extremely busy, but the wait was far worse as a very limp and tearful little bear sat on my lap as I sang through my repertoire very quietly. He was upset by the buzzers and he was flushed and uncomfortable. As soon as we were admitted we were told to get little bear down to his nappy. As a concession to his dignity we let him keep his socks on.

A very lovely doctor examined him. His heartbeat was a bit fast and he was very warm, although the temperature that the nursery had said had come out of nowhere was starting to slowly drop. He also found that little bear's tonsils were extremely sore and there was even evidence of pus. He wanted little bear to have some calpol and to give a urine sample. The doctor was surprised little bear was not potty trained. He was less surprised after hearing little bear's views on things.

So, there we were with a large beaker of blackcurrant, a small pot and little bear in just his socks. We tried running water in the basin. We coaxed half a pint of blackcurrant into little bear. We distracted and begged but to no avail. No matter how long I held the little cup under his dispenser, nothing came out - not a drop.

Little bear was feeling his position. 'Doesn't seem to be working' is a direct quote, as is 'use water instead' which made dear heart and myself giggle. Little bear also was keen on either dear heart or myself providing the sample. Eventually the attempt was abandoned, though we are fairly sure that he knows how to use a potty, in theory. He just refuses to put this into practice.

Little bear has now to have antibiotics four times a day for forty days. That is forty doses to be coaxed, bribed and even bullied into little bear. I am not sure that I can do this. Little bear has almost certainly been hiding his symptoms, with a regular mantra of 'much better now, no medsin, just vitamins in mouth.' He really does not want this medicine. But he has to have this - the dr thinks that this is an unusual case of bacterial tonsillitis and he needs to sort out the infection.

There was a very long wait after the dr abandoned the attempt to get a sample from little bear, and we had to wait for the water to mix up the antibiotics. Little bear, when he heard this, stated emphatically that 'Don't need water'.

When we tucked him into bed (10pm) his nappy was absolutely full of wee.