What a day! It started out like a typical Monday. We had breakfast, played with toys, I washed some dishes, then packed up our bag for a trip to Target later. I changed a dirty diaper, then changed Kelsie's clothes, did her PT and her breathing treatment and was putting Kelsie's shoes on when I noticed she felt warm. We were about to leave to go to Target and Kelsie was waiting at the door saying "bye-bye?" and I said "yes, we are going bye bye but first we have to put on your shoes". I picked her up and was putting on her sheos and she was complaining that they were "tight". And they were looking like they might be getting too small so we went upstairs to get some more shoes. And she was still whining "tight...tight". Not crying, just kind of whining. And then she just laid her head down and I noticed she felt warm. And her face just looked different, weak all of a sudden. So I ran back upstairs to get the thermometer and it read 103.4. And I just held her and she laid her head back and closed her eyes. She could barely hold them open. She went from running around just a few minutes earlier to falling asleep in my arms. I got her to sit up and take some Tylenol and called Nathan. I kept checking her temp and it was going up and up and up ...103.8, then 104.7, then 105.5... I wiped her down with cool wet rags but that wasn't helping. I was thinking this is probably just a virus, I just need to get her temp from getting too high. And once it got over 105 I knew I was taking her somewhere. I was cradling her in my arms about to leave when she vomited. So we went back up to change and I laid her on my bed. Her temp was up to 105.7 or 8 and by this point, I was really feeling nervous. This was literally all within a 10 minute period of time. Nathan knows that as a mom, I can lose my sense of nursing judgment so he always asks me, what would you do if this was your patient and the mom called in saying their temp was that high. And I said I would tell them to go to the ER. I am a firm believe in NOT over-using the ER but this time, I felt like it was warranted. And so thats where we went. Prior to that I had called her primary care doctor and left a message with her nurse. By the time she called me back, we were already in the ER. She left a message saying I hope this means that you have already left for the ER because that is where you need to be.
This is how she looked before going to the ER...not really sleeping, but couldn't keep her eyes open.
At the ER, she remained still in my arms for a while, and didn't say anything for a while, until her fever started coming down. And then she ate a whole baggie of Cheerios and drank her Gatorade.
The doctor said she heard some crackles in her right lung so she did a chest Xray just to make sure their wasn't any pneumonia. It was normal. They also did a flu test but discharged us before the results even came back. Her pulmonologist came down to see her and recommended giving her Tamiflu anyway. (Thats the medicine used to treat flu). I checked once we got home and the flu test is negative. They think this is just a virus so we will see how it plays out. It was a scary morning though seeing how high her fever went and how sick she was acting! But she has perked up now. She just woke up from her nap and is happy and playing at present.
Once the fever came down, she was gobbling up some Cheerios. But then she fell asleep again while at the ER, even though the doctors were talking in the room...so not like her!
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