Why We Didn't Get To Eat Japanese (and other stories) Part 2

Ok, so you’ve heard about Friday (if you haven’t, read about it here). I told you it was just the beginning…

Saturday morning we woke up and went to get haircuts. When we came back, we noticed that Big Brother was starting to run a fever. Of course, it would make sense that he would come down with a sinus infection just like Little Man had the previous week. Bummer, but manageable.

By that evening he was feeling pretty warm, so we gave him some Tylenol and went to the store to buy a thermometer. It was getting obvious that church on Sunday morning was out for at least one of us, but it still wasn’t unchartered territory. We’ve done fevers before.

It did kind of bother me a little that he didn’t have any other symptoms – no runny nose, no coughing, nothing – but I just passed it off as a quirky illness that would probably run its course. We even went out for lunch with the family on Sunday and then went shopping at Kohl’s (I know – Mother Of The Year – you can nominate me later and I’ll mention you in my acceptance speech…). He was feeling pretty good thanks to Tylenol, so we thought we’d be in the clear soon. After all, it had been well over 24 hours and no other symptoms had crept up, so maybe it was just some kind of virus and it would all be over soon.

Or maybe not. We hadn’t hit Sunday night yet.

By Sunday evening his fever was up to 104.9 and he was pretty miserable. I don’t think he’s ever run a fever that high before, and it was a little scary. We called our friend (who just so happens to be his pediatrician and an amazing person to answer our phone calls) and asked him if we should be panicked by such a high fever. He asked some questions and then assured us that warranted panicking had less to do with numbers and a lot more to do with behavior. Was he out of sorts? Lethargic? Vomiting? If not, it would probably be ok just to watch it. If he started any of that other stuff, though – especially the vomiting – then we’d have to go to an urgent care.

I bet you can guess what happened at about 12:30 in the morning.

And again at 8:00 (times three).

Ok, off to the urgent care we go. He was sick – really sick. It took 5 hours, a urinalysis, a chest x-
ray, three tubes of blood work, and two shots before they let us go home with a couple of prescriptions. They had nothing more to tell us than he was sick with some kind of bacterial infection and that we needed to follow up with his pediatrician back home if he didn’t get much better. They felt so sorry for him, though, that they gave him two popsicles, a stack of stickers and a stuffed animal.

At least now we had some antibiotics on board, so things would get better, right? We took a car ride through an animal park, knowing that we couldn’t do anything that required him to walk or be around other people. He seemed to be feeling better, and we had a blast dodging ostriches and feeding pigs and zebras from our window. A good time was had by all, but by that night things got a lot worse.

The 104.9 fever was back, along with screams of stomach pain and burning eyes. I was so scared to see him like this that at one point I was in tears. He definitely wasn’t better, and I wasn’t sure what to even do to bring him a little comfort. We called our friend again and were told what to watch for incase we needed to take him to the emergency room. Beyond that, he said, we would need to leave a little earlier than planned and come on home.

Praise God, we got the fever down with Tylenol and a bath, so we didn’t have to go to the emergency room. The next morning we packed up and headed home a little early, making it to the pediatrician’s office just before closing. By then his nose had started to run just a little and his eyes were a bright cherry red. With still no great explanation other than a bacterial infection (there just wasn’t any other evidence of anything else), he got two more shots and we went home to monitor the fever and rest.

By the next morning the fever had peaked at a strong 102.8 (where it would stay for the next couple of days), and both eyes showed signs of pink eye. Later that afternoon his right eye would nearly swell shut with infection, and his nose would finally start running a little, but ironically he was improving. By then we had started oral antibiotics and the light at the end of the tunnel was finally growing bigger.

So there we were, fall break pretty much over, a limping van, a recovering kid, and a pile of homework yet to be done (homework over break in KINDERGARTEN – what the world?!?!?!). But we were all alive and at home (not lying in a hospital), so it could have been worse. Maybe next year, though, we’ll have one of those “stay-cations” people are so fond of these days.

Come to think of it, staying home sounds like a great idea…

With any luck they'll open a Nagano's in Tennessee.