It all started Wednesday night, when we noticed that our normally bouncing and boisterous, nearly always content, Smaller Child was just not acting himself. He was very clingy, kind of whiney, and just all around unhappy. I took his temperature that night at bedtime, and he was running a 101 fever. The next day, the fever persisted, and began to get higher. He was still eating, drinking, and sleeping fine, but the fever kept climbing. By that night, the temporal scanner was reading 106. By Friday morning, Tylenol was doing little good, and the fever was hanging on between 103-105. I called our family doctor. She had no available appointments, but said that he needed to be seen that day, so I rushed him to the local Urgent Care center.
Beautiful Bald Husband met me there. He has this amazing ability to swoop in and lift me up right when my knees begin to shake. Thinking there was something really wrong with the baby definitely made my legs wobble, and there he was. So, after a ridiculously long wait, the nurse took the temperature and it was 101. They did a strep test, checked his ears, and said, "Eyedunno?" They sent me off saying that if his fever spikes to 105 or higher again, to take him to the E.R.
So, that night we kept a close eye on him, and let him sleep. He woke up twice. The temperature was 103 the first time and 104 the second. All morning this morning, it hovered right around 104. I finally decided to call our family doctor, at home, to get her opinion. She said he needed to be seen, and to take him to the ER. When he woke up from his nap this morning, fever still at 104, his neck was swollen. We decided to take him to the hospital.
They checked his temp there, and it was 102. They took us to a room, and then we waited. After some time, they checked his ears, looked in his throat, and asked us lots of questions. The doctor said that his ears seemed infected, and he had white puss on his tonsils. So, they gave him two shots of antibiotic, advil, tylenol, watched his vitals for an hour, and sent us home with an amoxocillin prescription.
Okay, so that's the facts... that's the timeline. Here's what REALLY happened...
Wednesday night, his Nana had mentioned that he had been a little less upbeat than usual. This was true, but I chalked it up to grumps, or teething. I didn't think much of it even when I got the 101 reading on the thermometer. I assumed, again, teething, and brushed it off with a dose of Tylenol and some Oragel.
Thursday, more of the same. I gave him frozen teethers, and tried to muster more patience and empathy than normal to sooth my teething baby. That is, until that night, at 2am when I read the scanner to see the 106 reading. I think there was part of me that thought, "This has to be wrong. There is no way! He's just teething!! How could that be right?" I gave him another dose of medicine, and tucked him in for the night.
Friday my Mommy Guts began to churn at every thermometer reading. Even with the Tylenol I could never get it down below 103. I was worried, but with no other symptoms, I could NOT figure out what it could be. I finally decided better safe then sorry and called the doctor. The receptionist freaked out when I told her how high the fever was, and the panic in her voice led to panic in my heart. When I was told he needed to be seen, "to-day!" I jumped in the car and drove fast to Urgent Care. That is when the words, "I'm scared" came out of me to my BBH. He asked me where I was going, and with that question, I knew he would be there.
We were at urgent care for what seemed like hours and hours and hours. None of them knew what they were doing, besides making me feel guilty for not bringing him in before then, and then rudely insinuating that I should maybe buy an new thermometer. I left with no answers, and with all the poking and prodding, a pretty grumpy baby.
Friday night was torture. I was up every hour, listening, checking, feeling, covering, uncovering, rubbing, watching, worrying. Fretting. Part of me wanted to wake everyone up and say, "I can't take it... let's just take him to the hospital." The other part, dreaded the visit and feared what they may do to him. I watched the thermometer like a vigil. With every increase of a tenth of a degree, my heart sank. When he woke up with the same 104 fever, started showing swelling in his neck, and began to lose his appetite too, I knew it was time to stop messing around. The call to the family doctor was just a formality at that point.
I had all of the, "what if it's Meningitis?? Could it be Mumps??? Are they going to have to admit him, or keep him overnight?? My poor BABY!" conversations going on in my head. I can say I am glad the drive was short, I am glad the wait was nil, and I am glad my family was there to distract me. BBH, Larger Child and I were all there to surround our Little Man with love. This guy... This guy right here... he's got us all, for sure!
The doctor in the ER was much more thorough in his inspection. He didn't mind making SC cry, to be able to really SEE what was going on. It didn't take him long at all to see infection, which to me was a HUGE sigh of relief. Eureka! That's the culprit! Okay, I can handle that. Give us the pink stuff, and we will be on our way. Then a conversation about injecting antibiotics. I hate when my children have to get shots. They had to swaddle his arms down, straight jacket style, I held his head down, and BBH held down his feet. Larger Child set in the corner, closing his eyes, and putting his fingers in his ears. Smaller Child screamed, cried, and was clearly in a lot of pain. It broke my heart.
Once that trauma was over, they had to monitor him for a while and watch for reaction. He was none to happy with this either, and he HATED this thing on his finger!
We kept watching the clock, beyond ready to go, Smaller Child is tired, hungry and grumpy, Larger Child has lost all patience. Time for entertainment. DS and IPhone help a little, but a rubber glove.... well, THAT'S a SHOW!
Daddy did his best at making Little Man feel better...
But, sometimes a little one just needs his Momma.
But, Dad can still entertain while he's there!
Though it was trying, and stressful, and frustrating that the doctors the day before couldn't find this stuff and saved us all this trouble, I am glad we went. We got answers, I can rest my weary Momma Heart now, and hopefully Smaller Child with be on the speedy road to recovery.
And HOPEFULLY this will be the LAST time he has to visit.
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