Day eleventhyfive of The Sickness. At least we’re not at the hospital with pneumonia again. Wolfie has been sick since last Thursday (officially, though coughing longer), and I’m on my third or fourth week with my usual bronchitis. His fever has been up and down, and he’s mostly been home with one of us grown-up types, resting and recovering, working his way through it again, with the help of animal shaped vitamins, nebulizers, and thermometers.

One of the last things they did at Dr Cool’s office during our first recent appointment was hook the boy up to a nebulizer to give him something for his lungs and cough. It was a cute one, looked like an anime puppy, but Wolfie was out of it enough that he didn’t really care. By the time his fever had broken and the chest x-rays came back confirming it was not (yet) pneumonia, just bronchitis, we had a prescription for a nebulizer in our hot little hands.

Which led to a conundrum. My insurance *might* pay for it; not in advance, but under reimbursement. When I was at McDoctor’s (before we switched to Dr Cool), they had prescribed a $70 piece of plastic to help Wolfie use a twice-daily inhaler for bronchial illness – we used a paper bag and just did our best instead. This time, I walked three doors down from Dr Cool’s and talked to the pharmacy there. They had cute nebulizers, panda bears, penguins, and that puppy dog. They kindly walked me through my options and encouraged me to attempt reimbursement, so I handed over my prescription slip and sixty dollars for a panda bear (after reluctantly passing on the penguin).

Got it home, filled it up, turned it on. Wolfie sat with it for a few moments, but hollered during the middle of treatment and took the mask off. We made him put it back on, and keep breathing in the good stuff. Or so we thought.

I was in the kitchen, washing dishes, and I noticed a funny smell. My dishwasher is notorius for funny smells, especially when I leave sippy cup lids and bottle collars to melt against the heating element I turn off but mysteriously turns back on. My crockpot is good at stinking up the place, too, especially when I leave a soup cooking too long. And the garbage disposal side has its share of scents; we don’t use it very often so the smell builds up. The ceramic cooktop – don’t get me started.

But the smell was our wonderful new panda-shaped nebulizer. It hadn’t visibly caught fire, but the machine and equipment reeked of smoke. I took the mask and medicine cup for washing, and it was smeared with black residue that didn’t wash away, and stunk on its own. Something had let the magic smoke out. A couple of internet searches later and I had the phone number for the manufacturer (no answer on a saturday night) and the pharmacy (answering machine, but closed until Monday (if not closed for MLK day)). Wolfie showed no other ill effects from the treatment, and we sent him off to bed as usual. His fever broke for the first time Sunday morning.

The next morning, I phoned Dr Cool’s service and gave a detailed message, instructing them to call the local mega-drug store at opening time with our renewed prescription for a nebulizer. The call was never made; I convinced them to sell me a nebulizer anyway (the boxes are clearly marked requiring a prescription to purchase). Monday the first pharmacy called back and had me return it, refunding my money and noting they’d send it back to the manufacturer (the pharmacy manager called me about three minutes after they opened Monday).

Wolfie went back to school monday, but was wrung out by the day, so he’s been home with us the last few days, alternating no fever with low-grade fever. I waffled about the prophylactic antibiotics for a few days, but he’s started them after a few days of spotty probiotic coverage. Hopefully it helps, and we don’t end up with pneumonia again. But if today is any indication, we’ll be here again tomorrow. I have work, but have no meetings tomorrow – we’ll see what I can get done with sickie boy. And if I need to take it as a vacation day, well, I could use the sleep myself. I hate getting bronchitis every year.

Meantime, I’m off to add another sticker to our plain boring nebulizer, and stick the thermometer that looks supsiciously like an emperor penguin in Wolfie’s ear.

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