She thinks we're fools....and she's right.

I got seven calls from Kinley's pediatrician's office yesterday.  Not an exaggeration.  The last call that I received of the day was to inform me that the radiologist reviewed the chest films and found an area of pneumonia in her lungs.  They wanted her to start an antibiotic and be seen tomorrow (today).  Finally!  A real answer as to why she's been so sick!  It all made sense now.  She was very off yesterday...just not herself.  And now I know why.  So Richie picks up the antibiotic after work, we pull out our vaporizer and get the saline drops for her nose as recommended.  We were all set to kick this bug in the boo-tay.

Last night, however, she was acting like our "old Kinley."  She was all over and in to everything.  She even discovered the stairs and our hall bathroom for the first time.  No joke, she was *everywhere*!  We were so happy because we haven't seen our happy-go-lucky baby in so many days. She ate dinner with us (and lots of it!) and seemed to be back to her healthy self. 

She went down for bedtime about 9:20 and it seemed like the worst was behind us.  It seemed.

I am convinced that Kinley's favorite hobby is to make us look like fools.  She's become so good at it. 

An hour or so after she went down to bed...she woke us up screaming this horrific scream.  Richie ran in to give her the paci back but she just screamed louder and louder.  We couldn't comfort her.  I tried rocking her, Richie tried rocking her.  I tried nursing her.  We brought her to our bed to see Lucy.  Everything I could think of, we tried.  She just kept screaming.  It was a pain scream.... we were panicked.  Didn't I want to learn from my mistake of reacting to a panicked situation?

This time Richie demanded that I call Dr. Natalie.  So we gave her Tylenol and waiting 15 minutes or so and called her.  Kinley was still screaming.  She acted shocked that she was on an antibiotic.  You see, she was off yesterday and come to find out, she disagreed with the radiologist's findings of pneumonia.  She told us to take her in the ER and she would call and let them know we were on our way.

On the way to the ER, we hear her making her sounds in the back seat..."whoosh, whoosh, Eeeee!, Eeeee!  whoosh, whoosh, woof."  Richie and I just look at each other.  Here it is 1:00 in the morning, we're making the trip to the ER and she's in the backseat "woofing" at Lucy (who is at home).  The whole 20 minute drive we debated turning around.  She totally played us! 

We get to the ER...figured that we were on our way, we might as well just go.  Walk in and Kinley acts like she's meeting up with long lost friends.  I'm sure we looked like fools.  We register and then have a seat in the waiting room.   Luckily the place was pretty much empty.  A knife wound came in so that got priority...so there was a short wait.  During that wait, Kinley used us as human trampolines, told us a very long story using her hands to express how dramatic her story was, woofed for Lucy some more and thought that this whole game of "her drop, we pick up" was a great time.  We got up and walked back to registration and said that we are leaving.  She's obviously fine and there was no need to waste anyone's time.

The girl convinced us to stay due to her pneumonia diagnosis.  We should have just left.

We got called back to the room and you could tell that the triage, the RN and the doc all thought we were nuts.  She was laughing, waving, jumping, talking, telling stories....Grrrrr. 

The ER doc did tell us that both him and Dr. Natalie are in agreement that the radiologist was wrong and her lungs are clear.  They decided to discontinue the antibiotic because the one that was prescribed is way too strong for her.  It causes severe belly discomfort and diarrhea.  No joke?  She crapped all over the place after dinner.  Grrrr

So the doc did a quick check over her and said that he agrees that it's just a virus and that she basically just played us.  Nice.  I'm sure we're going to pay him a few grand to confirm the fact that our daughter rules the roost at our house. 

She did cry on the way home but only because it was now 3AM and she was done playing her game and wanted to go back to bed.  We did too. 

Poor Richie only got about 2 and a half hours of sleep last night and had to go to work today.  It'll be an early night in this house.   If Kinley allows it, I guess.

A few things have come from this:  1.  I will be writing a letter to Children's Hospital to inform them of my dissatisfaction in their services.  They should have done a more thorough check of her.  Even though the pneumonia diagnosis is in debate right now, they should have checked for it.  2.  The radiologist needs to leave the diagnosing to our pediatrician and NOT call me to tell me my daughter has pneumonia.  And NOT have an antibiotic strong enough for a small horse prescribed for her.  He owes us $30 for a medication we won't be using.  3.  I will be discussing the whole "cry it out" method for Kinley today with Dr. Natalie.  We decided that we need to take control back from this little Diva. 

We love her to the moon and back a few hundred times, but boy....this girl has us whipped!