Mother of the Year? or More Rexian Adventures?

I just can't decide which title.

Hopefully this post won't land me in jail for child neglect.

But it IS pretty entertaining.  Now.  After the fact.

So, back in November, Rex was not feeling well, and I ended up taking him to see the doctor.  His neck hurt, but it was fine.  Meanwhile, while she was peering into one of his ears, the doctor asked if we had any red fish tank rocks.  Ummm, no?  Hmmmm.  Well, it looks like there's one in his ear.

Whereupon, helpful Rex pipes up, "Or maybe it's a crayon."

Ummmmm....how long's it been in there, ya think?

"Oh, since the first week of school."  Very casually and helpfully.

Doh.

So, the doc tries to fish it out, but it won't come out, and Rex is crying.  Ok, so now we need to go see the ENT (ear, nose, throat guy).  We did try to flush it out at home.  Had I known how large it actually was (for being in an ear), I probably wouldn't have attempted that.  Anyway, the appointment....

Ummmmm....I forgot to set up that appointment.  Which I was reminded of when I took Rex in for his annual well-child right after his birthday in early January, and the doctor was peering in his ears again, and said, "I feel like I'm having deja vu?"

Doh.

I called the ENT THAT VERY DAY, and they got him in the VERY NEXT DAY.  (Does this make up for anything?)  Rex cried on the way to the office.  He cried in the office.  He flinched when they went to take his temperature, even though his ear didn't hurt AT ALL, as he had voluntarily reassured me repeatedly.  I got a dirty look from the nurse when I told Rex not to be a wuss about having his temperature taken.  Ok, so granted name-calling is NOT good.  But I did already know that his ear didn't really hurt.

It just went from bad to worse.  They took him across the hall to where the ENT had a handy-dandy microscope for peeking into small orifices like the ears.  It took 3 people to hold Rex down while the ENT dug the crayon out.  Rex was screaming BLOODY MURDER.  I was starting to wonder if it really did hurt when the ENT pointed out that he wasn't actually touching Rex's ear when Rex was screaming the loudest.  It was bad.  When we walked through the waiting room after, people stared at us because Rex had been screaming so loudly.  It wasn't pretty.

The part that kills me is that Rex insists, to this very day, that the crayon accidentally fell in his ear.  Hello?  Has anyone out there ever had an object fall into their ear canal so far that a doctor had to remove it for you?  I didn't think so.  Oh yeah, AND he insists that he really could hear better with the crayon in.  Ok.

But now it's all over.  Crayon's out.  And hopefully (knock on wood), Rex won't ever feel inclined to stick something in his ear again.  And the moral of the story is...ummm....Tracy is the mother of the year?  LOL!