104

Poor Noah is really sick. Yesterday morning and afternoon he refused all foods, which is strange, but not unheard of for a toddler. He woke from his nap with a temperature of 102. He started to get really irritable and go downhill fast so we took him to the Children's Urgent Care down the street. It was empty when we arrived so I was relieved that we would see the doctor quickly. You can imagine my dismay when instead of the doctor a student nurse practitioner walked into the room. My nursing friends that read this will understand my thoughts instantly, but to those who don't - I'm a nurse. Why would I bring my baby to see another nurse? And this one, in my opinion, was not the top of the class. Her questions were ridiculous, like "how long has he been on solid foods?" Are you kidding me? My answers were short and I must not have been very nice because she said she would have the doctor evaluate him instead and as soon as she left Geno turned to me and said, "wow, that was really hard for you wasn't it?" Really, I just wanted Noah to see a doctor and the longer we waited the worse he was getting. Finally the doctor arrived and Noah was on fire by this point. He gave him a dose of tylenol to follow the dose of motrin he just got and waited to see the response. His temp climbed to 104 despite the two medications. What was alarming was not the fever itself but that there was no apparent cause. So after all other options were explored the doctor felt we had to catheterize him to get urine and draw blood. The 30 minutes that followed of holding him down while the nurses poked and prodded left Geno and I in tears. There is nothing harder, I'm convinced, then seeing your child sick and in pain. I try to calm and reassure parents all the time at work when they call about their sick children. But when its your own, all the calmness goes out the window. I realize how lucky we are that despite these illnesses that come and go, we have a healthy child. For some parents, friends included, the struggle with chronic illness and testing is a daily reality. I feel lucky that we have a healthy child that is temporarily ill. Last night was tough. We were up every two hours as his temperature rose. He's still not eating and far from himself. But hopefully we will find out more about what's causing it at the doctor tomorrow. Please keep the little guy in your thoughts and I am sure he will be feeling better soon. His mom and dad might take a little longer to recover.