our first trip to the er...

*LOTS of details, but this is for my memory's sake!

my sweet canon has had a tough past 48 hours. after running fever through the night wednesday, we decided to take him to the dr yesterday. i had a small window that we could go and they were wonderful to squeeze him in. we were in and out in 30 min. have i mentioned how much i love our pediatrician office? they swabbed him for strep since his throat was so red, but it came back negative. she said 1 of 2 viruses they were seeing right now was one where the child runs high fever for 4-5 days with no other symptoms and a sudden onset. we were told to keep alternating tylenol and motrin, eat and drink lots, and rest.

i was that mom that knew we really couldn't afford the time to cancel his speech appointments so i took him anyway. his hearing test was quick and painless. we were done in 10 minutes. in the afternoon was his big evaluation for a new program where 4 professionals evaluated him in different areas even though speech was our only concern. i had to wake him up from only an hour nap which is never good. when we left his temp was 99 something. it took him awhile to warm up to the people and what they were doing, but he finally started participating and did well, despite his red face and trembling from fever. he didn't qualify which is kind of a bummer, but really it's good because he scored "average" on the bell curve in all areas except speech which he scored "concerned", but not "deficient." it reassured me that he was "normal" for lack of a better word.

when we got home @ 5, i took his temp since it was pretty obvious he had quite a bit. it was 103.5 with motrin in him for 2 hours at that point. all he wanted to do was lay on a pallet with lights out and watch cars. i don't know how many times we've watched cars in the past week. around 7:30, it was time for more medicine and he looked like he was almost asleep so we thought we'd get his jammies on and put him to bed. i took his temp when i changed his diaper and it was 104.4. i was level-headed, but freaking out inside...if you can be both at the same time. i wouldn't have been that worried knowing he just got a dose of meds and that it would start coming down within the hour, but he was so lethargic and in lala land that i was scared the next step was seizing. lane called the after hours line and the nurse told us to give him a lukewarm bath for 20-30 minutes and if he started shivering to get him out immediately and that she would call back at 8:15. he just sat in the tub and stared.

around 20 minutes, he started shivering so we went ahead and got him out. i took his temp then and it was 104.5. at 8:10, it was 104. when the nurse called back and i relayed the numbers to her, she told us to come in to the er. lane stayed with ledger and canon and i set off for the pediatric er at saint francis. as nice as their children's hospital is i can't say the same for er...gross.

after checking in, we sat til about 9:30 before getting in a room. during this time i had him wrapped in a big fleece blanket with him laying against my fleece shirt. it was only a matter of about 30 minutes before he started sweating, and i knew this was good. growing up, i remember anytime we had fever, my dad would make us get under lots of covers to break our fever. it worked. as soon as we got to our room, it was down to 100* supposedly. sidenote: i hate those thermometers they scan across your forehead. they always read between 95-98 it seems. even though i just took a rectal temp and got 101*. nursing school taught me rectal is most accurate!

at some point , they came and got a chest xray, but that's all that happened until about 11:15 when a sweet dr came in. we read books. i drew everything in the room on the magnadoodle...twice. i'm glad canon thinks i'm a good artist. him and gary ate goldfish together. i had such a sweet time with him. the dr she said xrays looked good and could tell he obviously felt better. she agreed with the our dr in saying it was just viral. i told her the only reason we came in was because he scared us with how out of it he was. when we got home, he was wound up and didn't fall asleep until about 1.

we woke up at 7:45 to him screaming and wandering the halls. scared me again. we put him in bed with us and took his temp and it was 104.5. we just gave him meds and bundled him up in bed with us hoping for the sweat to come! by noon today, it was down to 98 and stayed below 100 until 7. i took it and it was 101.8. he's in bed, but can't fall asleep. i keep hearing him every 10-20 minutes fussing. it breaks my heart when he's not himself. we're hoping ledger doesn't get it. also, i'm hoping for good sleep...for all of us. i haven't felt this tired in awhile. night.