Duped

Yes, I was duped by a 3 year old. Ellie started to lose her voice late Monday night. When she woke up yesterday morning, her voice was totally gone. I checked her temperature and she was just fine. And she hadn't been sick, so I sent her off to preschool. After preschool I noticed her pulling a little at her ear. So I asked her if her ear hurt. She said that it did hurt on the inside. Given that the only thing that Ellie gets when she gets sick is an ear infection, I started to suspect that she had one, even though she wasn't showing any signs of a cold (fever, runny nose, etc). But I decided to let it go until after naptime/quiet time and see how she was doing then.

When I asked her later, she insisted with her little hoarse voice that her ear still hurt. I knew that she had a field trip to local pumpkin patch the next day and didn't want to send her on a four hour trip with an ear infection, so I decided to see if our pediatrician could see her last night. Thankfully, they fit her in at 7:20pm. Since Matt was home, he took Ellie. I should have suspected foul play when Ellie gleefully left for her appointment with her Daddy. If her ear really was hurting her, she was putting on a brave show.

As it turns out, she still has no voice - who knows why it is gone. But there is no ear infection and despite the lack of a voice she's just fine. The doctor did say the lost voice might be a precursor to a viral infection and to watch her, but otherwise she's great. So Ellie got a $25 date with her Daddy to the doctor. And I think she really liked it a lot. Oh well. What do you do? No doubt if I had decided to ignore it, she would have really been sick. And this is the first time she's ever cried wolf, as it were, when it comes to illness. Obviously, I will be a little more careful next time. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.