Need caffiene ...

Well, it's been an awfully long, stressful week. On Tuesday, Alex's school called me around 2:30 and said he was running a fever (102.4) and that I'd need to come pick him up. He'd had a runny nose for a while now but it hadn't been too bad yet. So I also call the dr to go ahead and have his ears looked at - try to be more proactive than reactive these days when it comes to his ears. By the time we got to the dr at 4, his temp was right under 103. They tested him for strep and flu and both were negative - whew. Said it's probably just a virus so we left with a prescription for Augmentin and headed home. I decided to keep him home with my mom on Wednesday since he can't go back to school within 24 hrs of having a fever..

So fast forward to Wednesday ... he ran a fever off and on - between 101 and 102. When I picked him up at 5:30, it was 102.9 so I gave him Tylenol. By 6:30 it was up to 104. At 7:30 it was still 104 so I called the doctor's office after hours line. That number is answered by nurses at Medical City Children's Hospital. The nurse seemed concerned that the fever wasn't coming down with the Tylenol and suggested we bring him in to be looked at.

So at 8pm, Dan, Alex, and I headed out to the ER. The room was filled of coughing kids (and some adults) and Alex was so good the whole FOUR hours we were there. Even though he certainly did not feel well, he went back and forth between people watching and laying his head on my chest (one thing we've found is that when he's sick, he definitely wants his mama *smile*)

So they take us back (finally) and he even slept through his rectal temp - I bet somewhere in there he was asking "What the...?!?!". 102.4 They took us back to a room in the ER and ran all kinds of tests - another flu and strep, and the worse was the catheder. They wanted to check for a urinary tract infection. Let's just say he did NOT like that one. Nor did I like having to stand at his head, holding his arms while they stuck that tube in ... never mind, you get the point. Once it was over, he just wanted to be held. (Can't say that I blame him!)

After more waiting... results finally came back. Strep throat. (didn't we just get a neg result the day before???) Also has an upper respiratory infection. So we left with a prescription for a new antibiotic and our fingers crossed. By the time we left the hospital, dropped off and picked up the Rx, it was 2:30 am before we finally got in bed.

Last night his fever was creeping back up to almost 103. Just kept giving him Tylenol and Motrin (switching off) hoping to give the antibiotic more time to kick in. This morning it was 101 so I'm hoping it'll start going back down any time now. I know my mom has to be sick of me calling to check on him. Poor thing is exhausted and didn't fall asleep until 10:30 pm last night, when he's normally out cold by 7:30.

So we'll see how the weekend goes and hope that the meds start working - SOON.


Funny Emily story: Dan was printing his tax paperwork the other day and asked Emily to get it off the printer for him. She picked it up and said, "Do you have to fill all of this out on your own? That's entirely too much for one man to have to do by himself." HAHA