Day 5 - A Trip to the ER

Our first trip to the ER occurred at 9:30 PM last night. Hopefully it will be a long time before we have to do that again... and not because of our daughter; it was the others being treated that made us heartbroken and sad!

Our lovebug ran a low grade fever all day long, ate some more than the day before, and took no naps! She had a bath and actually sat through it playing this time and let me do her hair without all the usual, recent drama tears. I took her temperature under her arm after she'd been asleep for some time. It was 102.8. We were done fooling around.

The admitting nurse asked when she'd had her last does of Tylenol and did not look to happy when we said 12:30 PM. She hadn't really been running a fever, we didn't want to do too much to alter the natural body fighting mechanisms, and we WERE ON OUR WAY TO THE ER!! She said that we should ALWAYS give the Tylenol immediately with that high a fever, in case it spikes higher and she has febral seizures. Great...we're feeling like failures as parents. To top it off our babylou had a 104.6 rectal temp. The nurse added that we needed to add a degree to our underarm temp and that wasn't really the most effective way. Great... add salt to the wound.

We were sent back out to the waiting room with a babe in diapers (to get that fever out) and she was up and happy and waving to everyone. Then we got a bed. I wish we'd stayed in the waiting room until the doc was ready to see us. H did well for a while and hung out on my lap and read a book (note to self: do not take out toys and books from diaper bag; will be needed to entertain during wait).

The screams of the child three beds down started the first round of tears from H (really, they were shrieks of terror) and the next set from the girl across the way didn't help either. Both were children who needed stitches or something done around their eyes and were literally wrapped up in a swaddle pad to avoid them moving and getting more hurt. I think that must have scared the begeezers out of them more than anything! It sure made us sad for them and our little one who decided she'd had enough and wanted to go.

The Dr. arrived shortly after all the screams subsided and listened to her chest, looked in her ears, down her throat, and touched her skin. Nothing wrong. Everything looked great. Except she had a high, high fever and a non-itchy rash that blanched when touched. Roseola was the dx. Give her tylenol and motrin. Leave off the pj's (not going to work since she won't sleep naked -- boy does she have a lot to learn!). It runs it's course in 4-5 days, is a viral infection, and contagious.

Y got the sick day today. Grandma and Auntie Kimber are taking Tuesday. I'll take Wednesday if needed. It's going to be a long week. Poor baby girl.