The right medicine ROCKS!

Alternate titles of this post: "Dr. Rodgers rocks!" or "Having a good night's sleep rocks!"


A couple of weeks ago, Maggie started having a bad cough, but only at night. And, really, a better description than "only at night" might be "only in the middle of the night." Every night for nearly two weeks, when Maggie made her nightly migration to our bed (I'll have to post about that later), she would have a congested, hacking, neverending cough. We tried everything -- OTC cough medicine, honey, warm juice, sips of water, propping her upright or on pillows -- nothing would quell this cough, and once she got started, it lasted for over an hour ... sometimes two! We were all losing sleep, and the deprivation was really taking its toll on Maggie, who was acting like a bear during the day and even taking naps, something she hasn't done in nearly two years!

So yesterday we headed to our favorite doctor's office. I wanted Maggie to be checked out to make sure nothing else was going on ... if she was starting to get sick, I wanted to nip it in the bud before Christmas. And I wanted her to get some relief at night too.

Dr. Rodgers couldn't find anything wrong with her -- I guess that's a good thing? She didn't have a fever, and her ears, throat, chest, and lungs were all clear. Dr. Rodgers' best guess was that Maggie has a bunch of congestion way up in her sinuses somewhere, and whenever she slept, it was collecting and causing the coughing and discomfort. "What we need to do," Dr. R said, "is dry her out." She gave us samples of kids' claritin to take in the mornings, and Triaminic night-time thin strips to take at night. (Maggie thinks these thin strips are magic since they dissolve - she learned a new word - so quickly on her tongue. She wanted to keep eating them!)

I didn't hear her cough ONCE last night! She did crawl into our bed -- albeit much later than usual! -- but never once coughed. She woke up happy and well-rested ... actually, we all did. Hallelujah!

In a funny aside, when Dr. Rodgers first came in the exam room, she asked Maggie what she wanted for Christmas. Maggie gave her standard response: a nightlight and a cottage. "A nightlight and a WHAT?" asked Dr. R. Maggie repeated "a cottage," and Dr. R started laughing hysterically. She turned to me and said, "I thought she said a 'cocktail'!" Later, when Maggie fell out of the toy dinosaur chair, Dr. R joked to me, "Maybe she's been into those cocktails after all."