Wednesday Eddie woke up with the stomach flu. After 6 hours of discomfort and a nap, he felt good as new. Cookie banished him to the living room in the hopes of keeping he and Josie separate. It worked pretty well as he proudly told his dad, "I saw TWO movies today!" March of the Penguins looks really good, but he fell asleep halfway through. I stayed home from work.
G'parents Ohio came on Thurs. after we gave the all clear so we could all attend the local "Day out with Thomas" on Friday while Den escaped at work. Nothing like a police escort through the bad parts of town on your "Thomas" ride.
Fast forward to Sunday when g'parents left and I took ill with Eddie's stomach flu. By Monday I was still quite ill and starting to experience extremely painful chest pain and shortness of breath. Of course at 5:30 after the doctor's office closed I decided I might need to see a doctor. My health insurance's nurse line (which is a fabulous benefit, btw), said I needed to call an ambulance to get immeidate treatment (second one to our neighborhood corner in less than a week).
After 6 hours and a slew of tests to rule out what the doctor was certain was a blood clot in my lung, I was sent home with the diagnosis that it was likely the illness that was causing an inflamation of the lining of my heart which was causing the pain. Yikes! Nice to know they were thorough even though it meant listening to the dementia patient who had fallen from the wheelchair in her room and got a gash on her head from hitting the dresser say over and over and over and..."I love Yoooouuuuu, I love Youuuuu" to both her caregiver and daughter. Poor woman had to wait an hour for a transport back to her nursing home. Then there was the suicide attempt that came in, but we had been pushed to the back of the room by that point as old meat and couldn't see anything. So much for HIPPA. Aside from names, I could have told you about every case that came through the door as we were just outside the station where the ambulances communicate with the hospital. It was interesting to listen to...until we lost our primo spot.
While we were at the hospital, Cookie called to say that J had a 102.6 degree fever and had been lethargic all day. Tuesday I called the peds 2 times as the fever kept getting higher and stopped responding to fever reduction meds. We were told that with no other symptoms, she needed to have a 103 fever for 2 full days before it was worth being seen. Last night she had a 104.4 degree fever, and we made a game out of putting a cool washcloth on her face, neck and wrists...until she lost interest in the game. At least Eddie got a good night's sleep. This morning she seemed to be recovering until Cookie called around 10:30 to say she was 104.something. By the time we got her to the doctor's, it was 104.8 and really wasn't responding to any meds. J was pretty lethargic.
We had waited an hour to be seen and I was fuming. After being told the doctor had one more patient, I marched myself down the hall and complained to the office manager, who kindly listened and and explained that yes, I was correct, they had booked too many patients for our time slot. Shortly after the nurse practioner came in to see us and then ordered rapid strep, a swine flu, regular flu and then urine test. Predictably, J gagged and puked after the throat culture--while Den held her. I had promised no needles, but not no cotton swabs. J was shaking and practically in tears, worried about a needle. She finally worked up the courage to ask the doctor if she'd get a needle. I think the doctor wanted to do some blood work, but seeing J's condition and reaction to potential bloodwork, wanted to order the other tests first and then reassess--peds do tend to take the emotional needs of the patient into consideration. Poor J had peed 3 times while waiting to be seen and had nothing left to give for her 'sample', but gamely tried when she finally seemed to understand what she needed to do. Her throat didn't look like strep, but was not in pristine shape and she was swollen around her neck.
While there, J's spirits seemed to improve and she was more active, so the doctor was less worried (we told her it had been a yo-yo pattern of lethargy and fever spikes). Den thinks the doctor did seem like she was contemplating addmitting her to the hospital as she seemed quite relived towards the end of our visit. And she did say that it didn't seem like she needed to be admitted, or to have additional tests at this point. We took the pee cup home and while I was at MY doctor's apointment to make sure I really was on the road to recovery, Josie filled the cup. Nice perk of being the nanny....
I turned right around with Josie and traveled the same route a third time today so Josie could give her pee cup to the nurse. She proudly handed it over and then we waited to learn that it was also negative. She seemed to be doing better by this point, but then spiked another 103.7 right before dinner. If she still has a fever in the morning over 100, we are to go in again. Nothing like not getting in any work this week.
Eddie was an absolute star tonight. He was so incredibly sweet to Josie and genuinely helpful. He got her some cereal to eat, her favorite cup for gatorade, and kept her company on the sofa. It sure pulled at your heart strings to see their interaction.
Submitted to answer any and all questions from the g'parents...
