Thursday, February 17, 2011

Latest Medical Emergency

My Boogie got sick last night. She didn't start coughing, didn't have a stuffy nose... She just didn't feel good and wanted to snug with Mama on the couch. I noticed that she seemed to be a little warm and so I gave her some Tylenol for the fever. Around 5pm, she fell asleep. She woke up around 9 and still didn't feel very good. At that point, I told her that she needed to get some rest and told her to go back to bed. She didn't want to be in her room by herself, stating that she was scared, and came out onto the couch with me shortly after....
Long story short, I was tired, in and out of sleep, and she kept waking up. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to her at first, just encouraged her to rest and go back to sleep. Until I was awoken by a screamed "MAMA!!!" She was on the end of our sectional directly opposite me and was freaking out about how the floor was moving. I told her to come over to me and she said she couldn't because the house was moving. This was strange enough to wake me up completely, at which point I reach out to her so that I could pull her over to me and felt her hand. She was on fire!
I jumped up and turned on the light in a effort to find the thermometer. She was not making a whole lot of sense - talking directly to people who were not in the room and then asking me questions that were totally off the wall. I was carrying on a conversation with her, so I know she wasn't asleep - besides, she had her eyes open. And when I asked her direct questions, like what her name is, etc., she knew the correct answers.
The thermometer finally beeped - 103.7 degrees.
Freak out time. That is the highest fever one of my kids have had. (I learned this morning from the doctor that, for children, 104 really isn't that bad... Well, coulda fooled me!) Apparently Jillian is extra sensitive to fever because this 104 had her completely delusional and hallucinating. She went from seeing people and talking to them, to freaking out because she was covered in red spots, to asking me if Nathan had died. I asked why she thought Nathan died. "Because he fell off a cliff" she said. Holy cow Kid... I assured her that Nathan was fine, he was sleeping and she could go see him if she wanted to. No, she was good, and fell back into a restless sleep only to awaken a few minutes later talking to some girls in her class and arguing about recess...
That was freaky. I gave her Tylenol immediately and prayed. And waited. 30 minutes later, nothing had changed. Fever was 103.6. So, I stripped her down to her little underwears and put her in front of the fan. And waited... I must have dozed off a little because when I woke up, I found a little ball of Boogie at the end of the couch. She had goosebumps on her legs. And a fever of 101.8. Are you kidding me!??!?! Its been over 2 hours!??! She was still pretty out of it and wasn't making much sense so I gave her more medication and laid her on my lap and rubbed her little head.
All this time I was trying to call Lowell to see what he wanted me to do. I knew that she was sick, but I didn't want to overreact but at the same time, I kept wondering what kind of irreparable damage I was doing to her brain. (See, freaked out mom!) Lowell never answered his phone so, in the end, I stayed at home and fretted.
I dropped the other kids off at school and then went straight to Urgent Care with the Booga. Before we left, her fever was still 101.5 but she seemed to be more coherent. At the doctor's it was only 99.8. The doctor tested her for strep and was surprised that she didn't have any other symptoms like coughing, stuffy nose etc. He checked her for an ear infection and listened to her lungs. All clear. So, what caused the fever? No idea. He's "pretty sure" she has the flu and that her's has just manifested itself with fever instead of all the other symptoms. Weird.
I just talked to Lowell, and according to him, she is acting like nothing was ever wrong. She's still a little tired, but no worse for wear. The doctor cautioned that around day 5 or 6, she may take a turn for the worse, but that is normal in the life of the flu.
As long as its nothing like last night, I can handle it.
I think.

1 comment:

Stony and Brit said...

Oh my gosh. How terrifying! Just reading that gave me goosebumps.