But, I'm getting ahead of myself.... Let me start at the beginning.
Yesterday morning, I was up at 4AM. As desperately as I tried for 2 hours, I could NOT get back to sleep. This mama was tired!
The day started out normal otherwise... Cory coming down and being greeted by a puking cat (yes, this is a common occurrence in our house as of late)... Eloise getting up at her normal 6AM and drinking her milk, playing, eating breakfast... Cory off to work... etc. etc.
As the morning went on, Eloise and I decided to read some books in the recliner. For the first 15 months of her life, we were always on the floor with her. Lately, I have been encouraging her to climb up on the furniture to sit with me and read. She likes this and we often will choose a stack of books to peruse while sitting in the rocker. So as we were reading and rocking, I noticed that her head felt unusually warm. We paused for a brief intermission as I took her temperature (gotta love those ear thermometers!) and it was 100.3. Not real high for a kid, but higher than the norm.
So throughout the day, I continued to monitor her and take her temp, which gradually rose. At it's highest, it was at 102.7. We gave her some Infant Tylenol and that seemed to help off and on... we gave her a cool bath... which didn't seem to help. In fact, afterward, Cory looked it up online and it said NOT to give a cool bath as it can cause shivers and actually make the temp go UP! (UGH!) She did like having a cool wash cloth on her head throughout most of the day... so we kept that up! In the evening, we decided to get her ready for bed a little earlier than normal. Before we put her PJ's on... we took her temp and it was 103.6! Cory had read that for anything more than 103, you should take your child to the doctor or ER. Of course, it was a Holiday Weekend and we had no other option than to take her to the ER at 7:15PM.
Off we went and had a rather long wait. Eloise curled up in my lap and started to fall asleep. Her head burning against my arm. The TV was on a nickelodeon channel and though we didn't want to watch the show... it was hard not to. I am telling you... what garbage there is on TV! I should've taken a book to read - but alas, that was the last thing on my mind.
We eventually got called back and went through the motions of getting El's weight and blood pressure checked... only to be led to a curtained room where we spent the rest of our night.
The nurse guy came in and I swear he said his name was "Lull". I was so perplexed by this... but realized later, after sneaking peek at his name tag, that it was actually "Lyle". haha The doctor looked at Eloise and determined that it wasn't her ears or anything he could tell outwardly... and called for blood and urine tests and a chest xray. So, the next few hours were filled with waiting... and crying (for El)... tests... eavesdropping... shivers (the AC was freezing!!) and also some laughs!
The tests were a bit traumatic. Watching your 16 month old give blood, with a rubber thing tight around her arm... tears streaming down her cheeks and into her ears. Not a fun time. Also not fun to watch her have to get a catheter and essentially be "invaded" - though we know it was for her best to find out if anything was wrong! The xray was something I was not allowed to be a part of, but Cory said it is something he will remember forever... and I don't believe I want to hear the blood curdling scream she belted out EVER again!
However, for the "laughs" part... I have to admit, we kept our "room" curtain partially open so that we could observe ER goings-on. People coming and going. The stories we heard from passersby gave us some chuckles! But the funniest thing was when a little boy, probably around 4 yrs old, was on his way past with a couple of adults. They were leaving and a nurse had just given him a Popsicle for apparently being such a good sport. Eloise was waving to him "bye bye" through the gap in the curtain and as he approached, he thrust his Popsicle triumphantly into the air and proclaimed: "I feel better! I finally pooped out my mouth!!" We were absolutely in shock by this - and needless to say, Cory and I cracked up as did the adults with the boy. You could hear them murmuring their embarrassment as they walked quickly past and rushed him along! I am not sure what the story was there... and I don't believe I care to know! haha
Anyway, a little before 11PM, Eloise was discharged with clear tests and xray. They said that they believe she has a bit of an upper respiratory infection and advised us to continue with Motrin to keep the fever down and if things persist, to make an appointment with her regular doctor.
I had tried to take a picture at the hospital with my cell phone but, of course, I failed to charge my battery and my phone died as I was snapping the pic!
We were never so glad to get home and settled. Though on the way into the house, I encountered the biggest spider EVER on the sidewalk. It was so big, I thought it was a tuft of grass from the lawn mower! I made Cory go back out and kill it and we agreed that it was the biggest one we'd ever seen in real life. Gave me the heebie jeebies!! And of course, we were greeted by more cat puke (I'm afraid we may have to put poor Weezer outside in the near future as this keeps up). And about an hour after Eloise went to sleep, she awakened, screaming for us. Being over 3 hours off schedule, I am not surprised... but luckily, she went back down quickly and slept in until 7:30AM.
Her temperature has gone down today, though it's still a bit above normal. We are keeping our eye on her! We hope to not have to make any more trips to the ER in the near future!!
