Bleh. Those two words are no fun. They are especially no fun for a toddler. Let's start this little story from the beginning.
It's Friday, September 14th and I notice that Nate has a low grade fever and has developed a runny nose. A couple of days later, he is still running the low grade fever, now has a stuffy nose, and Grace has contracted this as well because now her temperature is in the low grade fever zone as well. Now it's Monday, September 17th. Grace technically has a temperature, so I can't take her to school. I call the pediatrician's office and speak to the nurse. I tell her the kids don't really have any symptoms except runny noses and stuffiness and low grade fever, but she tells me to come in, so I do. Meanwhile, Nate developed this little rash on his chin. I think this is due to the excessive drooling thanks to the stuffy nose. I write that off and figure when his nose clears up, so will the rash.
So the Doctor comes in, checks ears, throats, and whatever else they check and says everything looks fine. All they have is a cold. This is fine with me, except I had to drive 25 minutes to get to the office, when I wish they could have just told me the same thing when I called earlier instead.
So the days go by, Nate still seems a little sick. Grace was better, and both kids seemed to not have any more fevers. Then yesterday Nate felt warm again. I break out my handy dandy new temporal artery thermometer (thanks mom! I had an ear thermometer, but I found it was very inaccurate and inconsistent). It reads 101. something. 101.8 maybe. Anyway, it was inbetween 101 and 102. Poor Nate was running a fever for who knows how long. He could have been running a fever since I took him to the Dr the week before. That would make 11 days of fever. Surely he wouldn't have run a fever that long......right? Anyway, I give him some Tylenol before bed, and I decide that I will recheck his temperature in the morning, and if he was still running a fever, I would call the pediatrician again. This morning comes and his temperature was around 101 or 102 something. I get the kids ready and we leave to drop Grace off at school. On my way home I call the dr's office and after I tell the nurse my story, she misunderstands and advises me that fevers can take 4-5 days to get out of the system...Alternate Tylenol and Motrin and if its not gone in a few days, then call back. After realizing she didn't catch the fact that I brought Nate in Monday of LAST week, and not this week, I politely tell her that it's already been more than a week, and I just don't know if the fever had been continuous but its something that started almost 2 weeks ago. She decides that I should indeed come in right away to get him checked out. And so I do.
We get to the dr's office and I am happy to see an empty waiting room. That with the fact that our usual dr is the closest to "on time" that a dr can get reassures me that I won't have to wait long with a certain cute, impatient toddler who just wants to run and jump and climb and does not want to sit still in a dr's office waiting for an hour. But who could blame him? No one wants to sit there waiting. Anyway, we get called in pretty quickly, get Nate's temperature, which was taken with an ear thermometer and was normal now (that ALWAYS happens, I swear they must think I make these stories up) and attempted to get a weight, but Nate would have nothing of that. Good thing we had his weight taken last week.
So we get into the room, and while we are waiting, Nate plays cars. Mee pay caw, Nate says. (thats me play car, in case you don't speak Nate). So he plays, quietly and still. Yes, he was sitting still, playing. A moment for the record books for sure. The dr comes in not very long after we got in the room. She asks me the questions. I give her the answers. She peeks in Nate's ears. She does a quick glance in his throat. She asked about the rash on his chin, which of course by me telling you this means it still has not gone away. I tell her he has had it at least since I brought him in last week and that I thought it was just a drool rash--WAIT, while I interupt myself here. The dr last week also said it was just a drool rash, too. Hmmmmm. Anyway, she tells me more than likely Nate has Strep Throat. She said his throat was a mess, and she also said that the rash on his chin is Impetigo. The bacteria causes both, in case you didn't know. I didn't either until she told me. She wrote me a prescription for an oral antibiotic for the strep throat, and a topical antibiotic for the impetigo.
And here we are. It's 11:41pm. Nate went to bed with a fever of almost 102 and woke up about 2 hours ago in a sweat, so I'm hoping that means it broke. I feel bad for poor Nate if he had been this sick this whole time. I asked him last week where his boo boo was (trying to see if he had an ear infection and hoping that if he was in pain, he'd point it out), and he had pointed to his mouth. But seeing the fact that Nate is not yet proficient in the communication department, I wasn't sure he really had a boo boo in his mouth. Anyway, I just ask for your prayers that Nate will feel better quickly, and that no one else will get this, too, especially with Grace's birthday party being this weekend. Once he's had the antibiotics and has been fever free for 24 hours, he is no longer contagious, and the antibiotics should kick in pretty quickly. I'll keep you updated.
It's Friday, September 14th and I notice that Nate has a low grade fever and has developed a runny nose. A couple of days later, he is still running the low grade fever, now has a stuffy nose, and Grace has contracted this as well because now her temperature is in the low grade fever zone as well. Now it's Monday, September 17th. Grace technically has a temperature, so I can't take her to school. I call the pediatrician's office and speak to the nurse. I tell her the kids don't really have any symptoms except runny noses and stuffiness and low grade fever, but she tells me to come in, so I do. Meanwhile, Nate developed this little rash on his chin. I think this is due to the excessive drooling thanks to the stuffy nose. I write that off and figure when his nose clears up, so will the rash.
So the Doctor comes in, checks ears, throats, and whatever else they check and says everything looks fine. All they have is a cold. This is fine with me, except I had to drive 25 minutes to get to the office, when I wish they could have just told me the same thing when I called earlier instead.
So the days go by, Nate still seems a little sick. Grace was better, and both kids seemed to not have any more fevers. Then yesterday Nate felt warm again. I break out my handy dandy new temporal artery thermometer (thanks mom! I had an ear thermometer, but I found it was very inaccurate and inconsistent). It reads 101. something. 101.8 maybe. Anyway, it was inbetween 101 and 102. Poor Nate was running a fever for who knows how long. He could have been running a fever since I took him to the Dr the week before. That would make 11 days of fever. Surely he wouldn't have run a fever that long......right? Anyway, I give him some Tylenol before bed, and I decide that I will recheck his temperature in the morning, and if he was still running a fever, I would call the pediatrician again. This morning comes and his temperature was around 101 or 102 something. I get the kids ready and we leave to drop Grace off at school. On my way home I call the dr's office and after I tell the nurse my story, she misunderstands and advises me that fevers can take 4-5 days to get out of the system...Alternate Tylenol and Motrin and if its not gone in a few days, then call back. After realizing she didn't catch the fact that I brought Nate in Monday of LAST week, and not this week, I politely tell her that it's already been more than a week, and I just don't know if the fever had been continuous but its something that started almost 2 weeks ago. She decides that I should indeed come in right away to get him checked out. And so I do.
We get to the dr's office and I am happy to see an empty waiting room. That with the fact that our usual dr is the closest to "on time" that a dr can get reassures me that I won't have to wait long with a certain cute, impatient toddler who just wants to run and jump and climb and does not want to sit still in a dr's office waiting for an hour. But who could blame him? No one wants to sit there waiting. Anyway, we get called in pretty quickly, get Nate's temperature, which was taken with an ear thermometer and was normal now (that ALWAYS happens, I swear they must think I make these stories up) and attempted to get a weight, but Nate would have nothing of that. Good thing we had his weight taken last week.
So we get into the room, and while we are waiting, Nate plays cars. Mee pay caw, Nate says. (thats me play car, in case you don't speak Nate). So he plays, quietly and still. Yes, he was sitting still, playing. A moment for the record books for sure. The dr comes in not very long after we got in the room. She asks me the questions. I give her the answers. She peeks in Nate's ears. She does a quick glance in his throat. She asked about the rash on his chin, which of course by me telling you this means it still has not gone away. I tell her he has had it at least since I brought him in last week and that I thought it was just a drool rash--WAIT, while I interupt myself here. The dr last week also said it was just a drool rash, too. Hmmmmm. Anyway, she tells me more than likely Nate has Strep Throat. She said his throat was a mess, and she also said that the rash on his chin is Impetigo. The bacteria causes both, in case you didn't know. I didn't either until she told me. She wrote me a prescription for an oral antibiotic for the strep throat, and a topical antibiotic for the impetigo.
And here we are. It's 11:41pm. Nate went to bed with a fever of almost 102 and woke up about 2 hours ago in a sweat, so I'm hoping that means it broke. I feel bad for poor Nate if he had been this sick this whole time. I asked him last week where his boo boo was (trying to see if he had an ear infection and hoping that if he was in pain, he'd point it out), and he had pointed to his mouth. But seeing the fact that Nate is not yet proficient in the communication department, I wasn't sure he really had a boo boo in his mouth. Anyway, I just ask for your prayers that Nate will feel better quickly, and that no one else will get this, too, especially with Grace's birthday party being this weekend. Once he's had the antibiotics and has been fever free for 24 hours, he is no longer contagious, and the antibiotics should kick in pretty quickly. I'll keep you updated.
