Because we only went the the Doctor’s office once last week, Margo decided to shake things up a bit and contract either a UTI or infection of some sort. Have you ever tried to get a toddler to pee on demand? Considering she hadn’t gone all morning I thought this was a slam dunk. Give me that hat, nurse, and I will have your pee sample pronto. Margo loves doctors. This is a girl who asks to go to the hospital.
And then Margo gets performance anxiety and no amount of singing, dancing, reading, pleading, or bribes will work. If the girl doesn’t have to go, she won’t go. I should know this after our trip to the emergency room.
So the nurse brings me water. A lot of water. And Margo drinks it all. She drinks so much, just watching I suddenly have to pee.
Margo then asks me to help her. Confused I say, “How can I possibly help you.” With watery eyes, “Squeeze my pee out please.” If she weren’t so frustrating, my heart would have broken. Because then with dry eyes she says, “I tinkled.” Looking into the completely dry hat under the toilet seat I say, “No you didn’t. Telling me you tinkled and actually tinkling are 2 different things. ”Oh, ” she says dejectedly.
I try reading her a book. Giving her the book to read. We try singing a song about the book. She asks for privacy. When I dare to leave the bathroom in the manner she asked me to, she starts screeching and bawling.
“I go pee now,” she says in her thin toddler voice.
Nada, zip, zilch. The nurse knocks on the door. Looking out in the hall I see a poor little boy hopping from foot to foot. Sighing heavily I pick the sobbing Margo off the toilet. The two of us sit in the waiting room me hoping that the urge will suddenly hit her and her trying to figure out how she can get the sucker she was promised with out actually peeing.
Finally the doctor takes pity on her and he motions us back to the exam room. She is a surly 2 year old who has performance anxiety. He takes one look at her angry face and he says, “She isn’t going to cooperate, is she?” Deep breath out, he gets it. Although it would be easier to know what she has, so he can indeed treat it, but he gives us several options to try before we assume it is an infection.
At that point I wanted to smack him. Couldn’t he have just led with that?
Margo apparently traumatized from the experience, falls asleep on the short car ride to pick up Isaac. And she even transfers into the house and now lies angelically sleeping on the couch.
Of course all I can think about is all the water she drank this morning when we tried to get her to pee.
*SIGH*
Don’t we all need someone to pull us along when we have no more to give?
