I didn't take her to the doctor today.

K (30 months) had a horrible cough this summer. It lasted in really bad form for 3 weeks. It was almost gone, but not quite, but really really really close and then we got another cold at the beginning of October. She's still coughing, but not very much.

All told she's been coughing for almost 3 months, but I KNOW that there were two separate illnesses that caused the coughing and we're almost (finally) over the second one. I know she was almost over it before she got sick the second time.

Yesterday, Mary Poppins (our wonderful nanny) said, "Boy she's been coughing a long time."

That simple statement made me feel like a horrible mother. I called the doctor to discuss the cough and the doctor thought she should probably see K. I was sort of feeling uncertain about what I felt so I made an appointment for this morning, but by this morning, I decided that K's cough did not warrant a visit to the doctor.

In the time I was around K today while she was awake (from 8-10:15 am and from 6:30 - 10 pm) she coughed exactly 5 times. The 2 coughs this morning were pretty wimpy coughs. The 3 coughs tonight were a little stronger, but still not that bad.

K has a slight runny nose still, but has no other symptoms. (I was still getting over the cold last week.) The amount of coughing she is doing each day is lessening in severity of the cough, duration of the cough, and number of times she coughs. I count these things. I'm a researcher. (In my head, I develop scales to assess these things.) She has no fever. She is running around like crazy. Sometimes the cough sounds kind of bad, but I am pretty sure it is slowly (very slowly) getting better.

Should I have taken her to the doctor?

When I told MWH she had an appointment for the doctor, he was surprised. I was waffling about the appointment and encouraged me to cancel it. As I listened for coughs this morning, I only heard the two slight ones from her, but then I coughed. My cough was worse than hers, and there was no way I'd take myself to the doctor for it. I feel fine, but I coughed. People sometimes cough.

I sure hope the cough goes away completely soon. I sure hope we don't get another cold until after it does. Last year, the girls had 3 or 4 colds between January and May I think... I think they've had 3 more between June and October... I wonder how many more we'll have before the end of the year.