The Good Patient

As I mentioned in my last post, we've had several doctor visits in the last few weeks. Olivia was running a temperature for over a week. We had one trip to the Convenient Care clinic after the first 4 days of a low-grade fever. Her strep culture came back negative. That night, her fever spiked to over 102 and persisted for two more days. We got her in to see her regular doctor who started her on antibiotics while waiting for a more thorough strep culture to come back from the hospital. Still came up negative so apparently it WAS just a nasty virus causing her sore throat and tummyache. During both visits, she was dumbfounded when the nurse took her temperature and then left without taking her blood pressure. She asked me, "blood pressure, please? Ok mama?" I obliged and pretended to take her pressure with the cuff hanging on the wall. The clinician in me giggles at the thought of my daughter knowing what vital signs need to be taken at each visit. We also practice opening wide and saying "ahhh" with popsicle sticks. This came in very handy when the doctors had to do the throat cultures. She was such a champ, so brave, and compliant with the doctor's requests.

When she gets the chance, she loves to turn the tables. Olivia loves to play with her doctor's kit. I think her favorite instrument would be either the stethoscope or the otoscope. She's usually pressing the stethoscope against my chest telling me to take a deep breath, or asking me to take her blood pressure. Ya gotta love Charlie. He was her most recent patient, and was so tolerant of her poking and prodding. After she looked in his ears, I asked her what she saw. "Monkeys!" (That's what Dr. Heath tells her he sees when he looks in HER ears). This kid doesn't miss a beat.

I've also been teaching her the names of her bones. She can point to her clavicle, sternum, ribs, mandible, humerus, radius and ulna. We're working on scapula and femur too. Her pronunciation of these parts is absolutely precious. For instance, "clabicle." It just reinforces what they say about kids at this age - sponges. Amazing what they can learn. And it's fun for mom to teach!