Alex has first visit tomorrow

Today around lunch time I received a call from Alex's DHS case worker. He wanted to set up a visit with mom in prison for TOMORROW!  Nothing like waiting till the last minute.  He also told me he should have done it weeks ago and he's not making excuses BUT there was snow and he was sick, blah blah.  So now I have to pick him up early from school and drive him downtown, which will take about 45 minutes.   The best thing about all of this is that NOBODY has told Alex that mom is in prison.  He thinks she is at College learning how to be a great mom.  Anyway I probably should have kept the information about the visit to myself, but I told Alex he was going to have a visit with mom tomorrow.  We went around the house taking pictures of things he may want to show her and talk to her about, like his room, some toys, and the dog.  Now it is 10:00pm and he is complaining about his ear hurting and will not go to sleep.  His ear hurt last night when he didn't want to do homework too, only it was magically the other ear, and there has been no mention of either ear hurting all day.  Im getting really tired of all of thee phantom illnesses that only come around when he doesn't want to do something or is needing some attention.  Don't get me wrong I completely understand the "why" behind this behavior, but it doesn't make it any less draining.  I've taken care of his ear and babied him and pointed out that I think his ear probably hurts because he has some big feelings about tomorrows visit.  He told me he wants to be happy about the visit but is just afraid his ear is going to hurt too much for the visit.  He guesses he will just need to go to the hospital.  I'm trying to be patient, but I've been up to his room at least ten times now, the wailing and fake crying at the top of his lungs is pushing me to the edge.  Anyone have an overly dramatic, phantom illness kid at their house?  Any ideas?