Day 17 - The doctor

Today Jakob had fun playing in the kids' swimming pool in the park together with his parents and his friends Paola and Armando (who are both 5 years old) all day. Since his nose is still running, we didn't want him to spend much time in the pool. But of course it turned out to be impossible to keep him out of the pool without constant screaming and crying, so we were selfish and let him do as he liked, so that we could have peace.

What bad, bad parents we are!

At the end of the day he started pointing at his ear and saying "me duele aquí" ("I am hurting here"). We had dismissed the thought of an ear infection because he has so good hearing, and thought that he might be pulling our leg now (because we had asked him earlier if his ears were hurting), but we seriously considered taking him to a doctor.

Then, when we got back from the park in the late afternoon, he pointed at his butt and said the same thing. He hasn't had any soreness or rashes or anything, but we thought he might need some zinc salve, so we had a look at his bum. That's when we got scared: One buttock was swollen and red, with clear puncture marks where something (like a big ant or spider) had bitten him!

We did not know whether they have poisonous bugs in parks in Cali, but Jelena was not about to sit around until we found out. While Ulf gave the kid some Dolex painkiller syrup (which obviously tasted good, by the way), Jelena ran to the hotel reception and demanded that they call a doctor immediately! They did, but the doctor could not come until two hours later. In the meantime, the swelling on the buttock was growing redder and harder.

By the time the doctor finally arrived, our boy was hot and showed signs of a fever. We made the doc check both the insect bite and Jakob's ears. But we needn't have asked him to! He was very thorough and very good with children. He looked and acted exactly like a doctor shall! If you have ever seen James L. Brooks's movie As Good As It Gets, think of the pediatrician there! That's exactly what he was like! (And if you haven't seen that movie, rent it as soon as you get the chance!) We could tell that this guy knew what he was doing, and he really made us feel that our son was getting the best possible treatment.

It was such a relief to the parents to have a doctor's (and such a good one's) diagnosis! He told us that the wound was inflamed (well, we could see that) and needed an antibiotic ointment, and that Jakob's left ear has an infection that also ought to be treated with antibiotics. He prescribed two antibiotics, one oral and one for external use, and one fever alleviating painkiller (which turned out to be the same syrup we had bought the other day), and then he wrote as part of the precription: "no piscina" ("no swimming pool")!

(Ouch! That last part made us feel a bit ashamed of ourselves.)

As soon as we had paid the doctor, he left, and the hotel called in the prescription for us during supper and had the medicines delivered at the hotel, without us even asking for it. We are very content with the service here!

Jakob was in obvious pain from his butt when it was bedtime. We gave him all the three prescribed kinds of medicine and held his hand while he cried himself to sleep. It was awful, but much less so than when we did not know what was wrong or when it might get better!

But we never did find out what bit him.