How much does one kid have to drink? (Updated)

So, three rounds of antibiotics and one round of steroids later, E is doing pretty well. She says her throat doesn't hurt anymore, and was very upset that I wouldn't share my pizza at lunch with her. (While Popsicles and ice cream may be all she's supposed to eat these days, it's not enough to carry me through... although there are not a lot of other choices in the snack shop downstairs.) In fact the ENT team has cleared her to go home this afternoon, if she drinks enough. Which is turning out to be the problem. She doesn't have a sore throat, she's just not thirsty and not really interested in drinking. She's still hooked up to an IV line too, so I don't imagine that's helping.

She has also decided that she doesn't want to go home. Although one might think it's because she having such great quality time with mom, rather it's because she doesn't want them to take the IV off of her. And it's not even the idea of taking out the line, I don't think. It's the tape they use to keep it on. All the nurses and residents here have taken great pains to tell her that it doesn't hurt, it just feels like Band-Aids. And there lays the problem. E (and A too, for that matter) love to wear Band-Aids, but never want to take them off because they think it hurts. No matter how many times we have taken Band-Aids off, and it didn't hurt, we've been unable to can't change their minds about this. So E thinks she can go through the rest of her days, I guess, in this hospital room, with this IV line attached.

Oh, and I just found out that they are giving me a prescription for the antibiotic she's on, so we can give it to her at home. It tastes horrible, according to the nurses here, and E agrees. It's becoming more and more difficult to get her to take it. In fact, about 10 minutes ago it took the nurse and I both holding her down in her bed with strangle holds and forcing it into her mouth. (Thankfully, she doesn't seem to have yet realized she could just spit it out, and once it's in her mouth she swallows it.) I guess if she's still on the antibiotic come Monday, DoT will have to come home during his breaks in his French training, to help hold her down to take her meds. :-)

No decision yet on whether or not she will be discharged today. I guess I should ask exactly how many cups of apple juice she needs to drink before they'll let her go home.*** And then I can line them up on her tray and force them into her like I am the antibiotics.

K...

*** Update -- okay, so the official answer is, 80 mL per hour and 960 mL per day. So about four times as much as she is. Oh yeah, it is not looking good for us getting out of here today.