Sick Little Boy :(

Larry and I were able to have a “date night”, since Grandma Karen was nice enough to watch Alex for us! We decided that we had better take full advantage of it because once we move to Maryland, our schedule is not going to allow for too many date nights! We had a great dinner at Ruth’s Chris and went to see Marley and Me. It was nice to be able to out to dinner with each other and enjoy and nice, hot meal!

When we got home, Alex was sleeping. I bent down to kiss him and noticed that he felt warm. I am not usually got at feeling if he has a temperature, so I asked Grandma if she had a thermometer. She did and I took his temp underneath his arm and it was 101.8. I got him some Motrin, which really didn’t bring it down all that much.

The next day (Monday), he battled the fever all day. It would go up, I would give him Motrin and it would go down to about 100.8. I called our doctor and told the nurse about his fever, the fact that he was putting his hands in his mouth and tugging at his ear. My first thought was teething, but the nurse told me that was too high of a fever to just be from teething. GREAT!! She advised us that it would probably be best to take him to a local pediatrician to get him check out. After calling around, we discovered that the only place that took visitors and children as young as Alex was the After Hours Pediatric Care.

We got to the After Hours place right as it opened and we were third in line! They eventually took us back and weighed Alex. Once we got back in the room we told the nurse his symptoms and she took his temperature. She took it rectally (poor Alex) and it was 103.3! No wonder why he was sleepy and grumpy! Larry and I could not believe it was that high.

When the doctor came in, she listened to us explain his symptoms and she suspected that he had an ear infection. She looked in his ears and was amazed when she discovered NOTHING! She listened to his chest and it was clear. His throat was a bit irritated, but he was having a little drainage from his nose which could be the cause of an irritated throat. All in all, she could not find the root of his fever – he had nothing wrong with him that she could see. She told us that it was possibly the onset of an infection, but nothing that could be treated without any signs of illness. She told us to get Children’s Tylenol and treat the fever. We are to give him the Tylenol every 4 hours (even to wake him up during the night) and make him comfortable. She also told us to follow up with our doctor if he wasn’t better in 3 to 5 days – luckily, we have an appointment set up with Dr. Whitaker on December 31.

It is so sad to see Alex not feeling well. He is definitely not acting like his normal, happy self when he is feverish. I am glad that nothing is seriously wrong with him – the worst really does go through your head when you see your child have a fever that high!