Adding Injury to Insult

Yesterday was horrific. My all-time parenting low (to this point). Olivia has been sick with a terrible cough and a high fever over the weekend, which made for one extremely irritable toddler. Poor thing didn't even know what she wanted. She would demand to be held, not letting me put her down, but at the same time screaming and pushing me away. Anna was pretty much an angel, as usual, but since her sister refused to let me take care of her, she did put up a bit of a fuss in response to neglect. Add a trip to the doctors (sinus infection and antibiotics for Liv) and potty training on top of that, and it was, well, horrific. I felt like everything went wrong, including my reactions to what was happening. So when Olivia was finally in bed, I laid down on my bed and indulged myself in a nice long cry. It wasn't so much feeling sorry for myself as feeling completely inadequate and bewildered as to how I would handle tomorrow.
When I was done with my cry, I did feel better...except that my nose was completely clogged, and my ears had the plugged up feeling and wouldn't pop. Jon sent me off to take a nice, long, hot shower, which also made me feel better, except that my ears still wouldn't pop. Completely exhausted, I finally went to bed anyway. Only to wake up at 2 am with clogged and painful ears. So this morning, I headed to the doctor to see what could be done. I confessed my problem and its cause, she took a look, and said my eardrum had nearly burst, it was bulging and bloody from the pressure of all the crying and buildup in my nose and sinuses, and whatever I did, not to blow my nose (or the eardrum might actually burst). She prescribed claritin and antibiotics, and I won't be able to hear from my left ear for a few days. Lovely.
So, cryer beware, if you need to have a good cry, do it sitting up so things can drain properly.