ok, i am ready, it's the story of the tick

i found one on nina. it was in that upper fold of her ear, right in the underside of the top, hiding there where i couldn't see it. but i found it AT THE DANCE RECITAL! during a costume change, i saw its creepy legs clutching her ear and i knew instantly. ick!! and it was so hard to pull it off, and i had to be quick because it was a super fast costume change (the one where she only had 2 minutes). i had to give it like, 5 good yanks. i felt SO bad for having missed it, it was pretty filled with blood. my poor baby had a tick! the guilt! i was shaking by the time i got it off. i was severely traumatized.

but it gets worse! while maggie was nursing on sunday, i saw something black in her EAR CANAL! it made me sick to my stomach to think it might be a tick, in her ear. so nick and i looked at it with a flashlight, and i had my dad look, and he got out the magnifying glass, and i called the pediatrician to ask for advice (other options for the black thing were wax or something she stuck in there. maggie does try to put things in her ears sometimes, so it was a possibility). we couldn't flush it out with an ear bulb (well actually nasal syringe, i couldn't find the ear bulb), and finally i decided that i couldn't sleep at night thinking a tick might be in my precious baby's ear canal. though if i hadn't had the experience i did with nina on saturday, i don't know that i would have been so sickened by the thought. well, if it wasn't for saturday i don't even think it would have occured to me that a tick might go for the ear canal at all. so anyway, we took her to the ER (god we need a walk-in clinic here!!), and it was wax after all. whew! even the dr wasn't sure it wasn't a tick until he had it out and squished it.

well, we learned a lesson about being VERY thorough, every night, in our tick checks. so hopefully this will never happen again!!