200/365 July 19, 2010

We spent an hour in the ER at the children's hospital today. Thankfully it was only an hour.

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed Jonas had a bit of a runny nose and felt warm. I gave him ibuprofen before bed and again when it wore off in the middle of the night (Levi woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and felt a little warm to me too, so I guess he has whatever it is too). He ate breakfast just fine but then he was cranky and just wanted to sit in my lap. After a little while, I checked his temp again and it was 107.2. Yes, you read that right. I didn't think that could even be possible, and sometimes I am a little leery of our temporal artery scanner thermometer, so I checked a bunch more times on both sides of his head and the lowest reading I got was 106.7. I also checked my own temp, and it read normal for me. So I gave him some more ibuprofen and started getting ready to go to the ER. I checked his temp a few more times between packing up to head out, and it went to 103.5 and then not even 15 minutes after the medicine, it was 101.7. I figured there wasn't much point in going to the ER with his temp under control so I decided to wait it out and see what happened, and if it spiked really high again I'd take him in. It was 100.5 before his nap and the same when he woke up. I tried to give him some food and he wasn't eating, and he started getting cranky again, so I started checking his temp and it was going up again, and fast. It got to 105.5 and I decided I was going in. I took the thermometer with me and checked again just before getting out of the car and it was 106.1.

I had posted on Facebook that I needed someone to make a drug store run for me so I could get some more medicine and a thermometer I could use rectally to make sure I was getting an accurate temp, and a really sweet couple from our church called me and said they would bring some over. But then I decided we needed to go to the ER, so I called them and they said they would just meet me there. So that was nice to not be alone there, even though the kids did really well and we were in and out in an hour. They did a rectal temp when we got there and it was 105.something, so they gave him a Tylenol suppository. The doctor looked him over and couldn't find anything wrong with him. She said that I was right to bring him in, because 107 is a big deal, but high fevers in little kids aren't really dangerous (they are in adults, but not kids) as long as they are from an illness and not from being exposed to heat. So basically she said to treat the fever to keep him comfortable and let it run its course. I'll keep alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol and hope it goes away soon. His temp was down to normal at bedtime, and I haven't heard a peep from him yet, but I have the medicine ready to go if he wakes up feverish again.

So, that was my "fun" day.