Whilst we were enjoying a shepherd’s pie at our house tonight with friends Jeni and her precious baby Jax, Benjamin suddenly lost it. Just fell apart in completely uncharacteristic wails. He was inconsolable and unable to vocalize what the problem was (quite unusual since he talks nonstop all day, every day). I decided to take his temperature just to be safe and sure enough, 102. Even stranger, he fell asleep while I was sticking a thermometer into his bottom. Sleep does not come easily to our Little Bear, especially if he is being prodded in the bum with the “tempatures” as he calls the thermometer. So, the fever and the strange behavior convinced me something was quite wrong. He proceeded to fall into a restless sleep full of whimpers on my shoulder and I did what anyone with wonderful family does when their little boy is ill and their husband is working a 12 hour shift: I called my folks. My brother, who lives down the road came over to thumb through my baby medical book so I could hold the sleeping, feverish toddler and my mom and dad arrived to give more experienced advice. One look at Benjamin’s HIGHLY unusual lethargy which was promptly interrupted by violent vomiting convinced us all that we needed to head to the only urgent care clinic open on a holiday weekend. So, off we went to sit in the waiting room for a bit. The last time we took Benjamin to the walk-in clinic the task of keeping him in a chair in the waiting room was a Herculean feat, but tonight he just whimpered in my arms and occasionally lifted his head to vomit. The poor angel.
My mom gave me a beautiful antique Rosary and I prayed with Our Lady to the Lord while we waited. Prayers, the presence of my sweet parents, and the distraction of tending to my sweet boy, was all that was holding me together. But a few tears did escape. Maybe it sounds dramatic, but you don’t know fear until you have a child. You have no idea. NO IDEA. Furthermore, Benjamin has never really been sick before. A couple of runny noses, but that’s about it. Once we went back to see the Doctor, Benjamin started to talk again, respond to us, and regain a little spunk. The Doctor was fantastic with him and thought he had a viral infection of some kind, a little bug, but did a strep test just to be safe. Turned out negative. So we went back home and after vomiting again, Bear really perked up and started to act like himself again. We gave him a bath (Daddy was back from work by this time) and read books and pushed the pedialyte to get him rehydrated. He was quite thrilled with his “special juice” as he called it and really seemed back to normal. I checked his temperature again and it had gone down two degrees. Daniel and I moved his big alphabet mat into his room and put a comforter on top to make a bed for Mama and Benjamin to sleep on. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep in a separate room tonight because I’d be worried he’d get sick in his sleep and I wouldn’t be there. So we snuggled down and the little guy is slumbering soundly on our special makeshift bed.
I cannot express my relief to see my spunky little busybody return to us after the scary unresponsive lethargy. And I’m so lucky to live close to sweet family who loves him just as much as I do. I hope my sweet boy is all better tomorrow!
it really is so hard when you child is sick like that! the only thing worse is when you are also too sick to take care of him. so glad everyone else was healthy!
So true! I heard that your whole family is under the weather! hope everyone recovers soon!