Chicken's First Ear Infection

Last Friday I noticed Ava coughing a cough that I didn't like at all. She had no fever, but a congested cough. (The reason I didn't like it is not only because one doesn't want to see their chicken sick but we were at L's and she has a tiny new baby.) The cough persisted, and although there was still no fever, we kept Ava close to the couch and her bed all weekend. Then Monday was the holiday, and Tuesday PJ took her to school before heading in to work. (He was supposed to have the day off but had to make up the time from Friday.) I got a call about 9:45 from the school secretary that Ava was in the office and was complaining of an earache. I ran over and got her, James coughing too by now (and me with a sore throat no less) and brought her home and took her temp. Her doctor transferred out of the practice to another one where they would let her work part time (she recently had a baby) and we hadn't done any switching yet, so I called the practice and asked if they could see her. A couple of hours later we were there with a nice Doctor who used her otoscope and confirmed that Ava had her first ear infection. She said that when school starts it usually takes a few weeks before the sicknesses and ear infections start going round and kids start coming in, but this year it has been gangbusters right away. We left with a prescription for an antibiotic and some numbing drops, and stopped at the pharmacy on the way home. After being told it would be 25 minutes, I opted to take the kids home and try to feed them. We were all dying and wanted to go to bed, but I wanted to make sure Ava had her meds. We came home to the neighbors new landscaping (it really does look nice) and ate, went back out to get the meds, came home with half our booty, and I put the kids down. I forgot to get Delsym and I was coughing so much that I could not sleep. But the kids were so exhausted that when I went into their rooms to look for the phone right after I put them down there was no stirring. I laid down with Lionel for a while on the guest bed and finally got up and did some research on shoes to help my back. The kids slept till about 5. We are still down today, although I found some Dayquil earlier that has given me some energy. We have watched way too much tv, eaten toast, played Go Fish, and read a few stories. It's only 10:30. I am worried a little about the rest of the day. The best part tho is that we are all in our jammies and taking it easy. Hopefully we'll have Ava back in school tomorrow and James and I will stop coughing soon.
(I was just thinking that we'll need more 7-up and I remembered hearing on the radio that 7-up used to have lithium in it. Isn't that crazy? No pun intended!)