A Sick Child

No one could really prepare you for your own child to be sick for the 1st time. Yes, I work with sick children all the time and yes, some are pitiful....BUT, no one could have prepared me for this. Really.

Alexander woke up Friday AM crying. Unusual for him unless you let him lay in there "ehh eehhhing" it too long. Then he will let you know "hey, I am ready to get up!" This particular AM he woke up just plain crying. I ran in there to see what in the world...it was kinda a different cry. As soon as I picked him up, he was burning up. I thought maybe it was just the blanket. I unwrapped him and rocked him a minute and then decided I was going to do what I promised not to do for for the 1st 3 months. I was going to check his temperature.
(You have to understand, working in the Childrens Emergency Dept., children under 3 months with a fever over 100.4 is automatic blood work, urine labs, and lumbar puncture to test for meningitis.) I had joked while I was pregnant that Yes, I had a thermometer but wasn't using it until he was over 3 months of age! BUT, he was so warm, I was scared.
Yes, indeed, he had a temp of 101.1. I took him to Eric and told him to hold him but don't wrap him up and I would recheck him in about an hour. I rechecked and it was 100.9. I gave Tylenol. I still didn't want to go to the MD. He had NO other symptoms. We hung out all day together and he seemed fine...a little crankier and sleeping a little more, but ok. I went by Nana Annies and she instantly said he felt warm.......Great....I thought he had broke the fever and we were over that. Nope. Fever 100.9. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but the MOM in me was like..."Ok, nurse Tonya, go away, what if there is something wrong..." So, I call work and spoke to trusty ole' Dr. Sutherland. Of couse urine and blood work was in the picture, no lumbar puncture needed if he was acting fine because he was 8 weeks old...whew....got that by a day! So, I picked up my sister and we headed in to the Children's ED for a workup.
Long story short....we had a wonderful nurse who drew labs, got his urine and let us know the great news of NO infection present right now. His ears, eyes, chest, nose, etc were all clear. We truely don't know why he spiked a fever but all his labs came back completely normal and that made me feel so much better. Yes, we will deal with the ER bill later! :-) We followed up with his pediatrician today and again, everything was clear. I have no idea why he spiked and yet is still running a low grade fever but we are treating with Tylenol and will keep a close eye on him.
Again, no one can prepare you for this...when it is your child, it all seems totally different.