A couple of weeks ago, you had your first lollipop ever ( or as you would say, "EVAH!" ).  We almost never give you candy or sweets, but this was a special exception..

 

We had a child who was screaming his head off and crying whenever he had to use the restroom because it hurt so badly.  It started in the morning when you said it hurt, and I thought you might have bumped it in the bathroom or something, and you didn't seem to be very affected. Your nether regions didn't look inflamed or swollen, and so we didn't think too much about it. You didn't have a fever, and when you went to the bathroom, it didn't look cloudy or smell bad.  We even went to the water park and had a good time, and you weren't complaining about painful urination.  However, towards late evening, you started complaining and started crying and screaming each time you had to go to the bathroom.  That's when I saw a bit of pus.   The pediatrician's office was closed for the day, but we brought you there first thing the next morning.  ( That's when the nurse handed you the lollipop ( or sucker as it's called here ) after your checkup as we were about to leave - plus, you also had your flu shot at the visit.. ) 

We suspected something superficial and not actually a urinary tract infection, but we were going to try our best to get a urine sample for analysis.  Trying to get a urine sample from a little boy who was phobic about going to the bathroom was almost impossible.   I ended up wiping down you froggy potty with chlorox wipes and hoped that you would pee in it and I could then transfer it into the sample bottle.  After several horrendous attempts at getting some urine for urinalysis and culture, we started you on the 10 day course of antibiotics and gave you ibuprofen several times a day.

The anticipation of having to go was as traumatizing as the going itself.  You would cry yourself into a frenzy and when you finally sat  down on the potty, you would just scream and scream.  We were all sooo thankful when the ibuprofen ( and then the antibiotics ) kicked in and made it way more comfortable.  I had to sit by you at the potty and hold you each time, because you were still so afraid it was going to hurt and would hold it and hold it till the very last minute.  But you were a very brave boy throughout the ordeal, and would obediently down your medicine twice a day till the course was over.

The initial urinalysis had shown white blood cells which meant there was an infection ( doh ), but no nitrites, which suggested that it was NOT a urinary tract/bladder infection, but might rather be something more superficial. Yesterday I called up the pediatrician's office to ask about the test results, and the nurse called back to let us know that there was "no growth"

You could not imagine my relief, as UTIs in little boys might mean something more complicated was going on. We love you so much little boy, and count our blessings every day that you as happy and healthy as you are.