Our weekend went south at approximately 4:30 Friday afternoon when we received a call that Sassy had a 101.6 fever. She's a pretty tough cookie and this is the first time she's actually had a fever - even with ear infections and one evil stomach bug she maintained her usual 97.9 (she's cooler than most kids, like her Momma). Given that she's not one to run temp and she'd just had an ear infection 2 weeks ago, we called the doctor's office who was, of course, getting ready to close for the weekend. The nurse gave me the stellar advice of "give her tylenol" - wow, really I'd have never figured that one out on my own! And said that if it did not come down or went up to take her to the ER.
After a couple of hours it looked like the tylenol was doing it's job and her fever was slowly coming down...until around 10pm when we were getting her last bottle of the night ready. I picked her up to change her and she was scalding hot, her temp was 103.6 and she'd had a 2nd dose of tylenol an hour earlier. We immediately packed her into the car and off to the ER we went. I expressed my concern that the ear infection hadn't been knocked out by the antibiotics the previous week, she'd been holding her hand over her left ear earlier in the night. The doctor reports that her ears are "perfect" shoves a popsicle stick down her throat and says "it's probably strep", gives us a weak dose and prescription of antibiotics and sends us on our way. All day Saturday Sassy was still one hot chick, her fever bouncing back to 101ish whenever the tylenol was starting to wear off. As much as I hate to pump her full of drugs she was on a constant steam of tylenol Saturday and Sunday. Sunday she decided that she did NOT want to eat - anything. Hand her a bottle and she'd scream like you'd just made her drink razor blades. She was inconsolable, she was crying like I'd never heard her cry before, nothing seemed to make her feel better.
And that's when this Momma, who'd only slept about 4 hours in two days couldn't hold it back any longer. She was crying, I was crying. My baby was miserable and I was helpless. My mom told me once that babies can sense your mood and if you're tense or upset they will sense that and mirror those feelings, I don't know if that's true but I've always kept my cool when she was upset; if I'm calm she'll be calm or at least that's goal. This time, it seemed my crying distracted her - my sweet little girl looked at me, touched a tear on my cheek, then laid her scalding hot little head against mine.
This morning we went to see her pediatrician. Those "perfect ears" they are both rife with infection-y badness. That ER doctor...he's officially on my list of people to punch in the face.
