The weekend from hell

As you can see by the fact that it is Thursday, the weekend from hell has lasted into the week from hell. I warn you now, this is going to be a really long story since it lasts from Friday evening until right now!

I mentioned earlier that Aidan and Amanda were staying with my dad and Linda on Friday while we were at work. When I went to pick the kids up they were both doing fine. About an hour after I arrived Amanda started getting whiney. It was quite sudden but not unusual. Amanda likes to be at home reading or doing puzzles and when she gets tired she whines that she wants to go home. I put her off for a while and we played and hung out with my dad, Linda and Taryn. After a while the whining intensified and I decided it was time to leave. I had parked my car down the street at Meeker's house since there is limited parking at dad's so I had to pack up and walk down the street. This is not usually a big deal but Amanda's whining turned into tears and I wasn't sure what was going on. We headed down the street with all of our stuff. I carried Amanda who was not willing to walk and dad and Taryn carried everything else. When we got to Meeker's house, Amanda perked up a bit and asked to see Sean and Kevin (Bob and Kelly Meeker's sons). I decided that we could visit for a while and see how Manda does. The meltdown was quick. She went from wanting to be there to sobbing within 15 minutes. I tried to comfort her and when that didn't work, we left.

We got home and it was about 7:30 at this point. Amanda seemed to be a bit warm and asked to take a bath. After a while in the tub Amanda started to shiver pretty fiercely which was strange. The water was warm and it was then I realized that something was definitely wrong. She started complaining about her stomach hurting. She had been coughing and had a runny nose so I told her to relax and that it was just a "yucky cold." I gave her Motrin and got her ready for bed. I took her temperature, I can't remember the exact number, but it was around 102. That was just the beginning.

She slept pretty well Friday night. I think she may have woken once or twice. Saturday morning the fever was still there and we gave her more motrin. Through the day on Saturday she ran a fever that topped around 104. I'll skip the details but Saturday was not a fun day. Her nose kept running and the cough wasn't any better. She still complained of her stomach hurting (anyone who has ever dealt with toddlers and preschoolers knows how difficult it is to find out "what hurts" on a small child). Saturday night we put her to bed, still running a pretty high temp. Since we don't have insurance, I decided to try to kill the fever on my own. During the night, the fever finally broke. Unfortunately it did not last long and by Sunday mid-morning, she was back up to 103. By noon she was up to 104 and we decided to take her to the doctor.

I stayed home with Aidan and Jon took Amanda to the doctor. Jon called me from the office and told me that there was only one doctor on-call at Medicus and that the wait would be 2.5 hours. Without much of an option, he ran some errands with Amanda and returned for the "appointment." The doctor diagnosed an ear infection and said that the fever was related. He prescribed antibiotics, told us to keep giving her Motrin and sent Jon on his way. I had guessed it was an ear infection earlier in the day when I noticed the glassy appearance of her eyes. She looked exactly the same when she was sick on her first birthday.

By Sunday evening she seemed a bit better. The fever was lower. I found it funny to be excited about a 100 degree fever but when it had been 104 previously, that was good! Sunday night the fever was back and stayed at about 103/104 all night. Needless to say, she did not sleep very well (neither did we!) We brought her into bed with us to keep an eye on her. I was very nervous about the high fever and wasn't sure what could happen.

Monday was much of the same. We had plans all weekend that we cancelled since Amanda wasn't feeling well. We were hoping that by Monday afternoon she would be well enough to go out to a bbq that we wanted to attend. I put the kids down for a nap and headed to the grocery store so that I could get that done before heading back to work on Monday. When I returned from a horrible visit to the grocery store (it was an absolute mob scene), Mom and Oscar were back home from Oklahoma. Amanda's fever was 104 and we weren't going anywhere! Later in the afternoon Mom and Oscar offered to watch the kids so we could go to the bbq for a while. Amanda seemed content to lay in the chair and watch TV. Mom was there so we weren't too concerned until..... her temperature hit 105.4. At this point I had no clue what to do. I gave her more Motrin since it had finally been over 6 hours since the last dose. I sat with her for a while and the fever started to subside. It dropped down to 103.7 and Jon and I decided to get out of the house for a while. The stress and lack of sleep were wearing us down. We went to Meeker's for the bbq for about 2 hours when mom called and asked us to come home. Amanda was being cranky and wanted mommy.

The next 12 hours were kind of a blur. To make a really long story a bit shorter, no matter what we did the fever wouldn't come down. She had been on antibiotics for over 24 hours and she had been running a fever over 72 hours. We were up all night (almost) and Jon and I had to work in the morning (Tuesday, if you were able to keep track). I gave her Motrin at about 3 a.m. and when it didn't drop the temperature after an hour I decided that it was time to head to the emergency room.

I took her to Vassar hospital and the people were really great. They were nice to us and got us through all the different stages very quickly. Before I knew it, the doctor was greeting us. After a pretty thorough exam he concluded that yes, it is an ear infection and by the looks of it, they are both infected. There was no stomach emergency and everything seemed fine (I mentioned it since that was Amanda's only complaint other than "I sick"). The doctor explained that although a very high temperature is worrysome that some children tend to run very high fevers. Since Amanda was a preemie and she had a very hard time maintaining her body temperature after birth, the doctor commented that her prematurity could be a cause for her to run higher fevers. This is not the first time she has had a high temperature. He also suggested that she could possibly have a UTI and we had to get a "sample" for testing so that we'd know if the antibiotics that she is on will work. I'll try not to be too disgusting but getting a "sample" from a 2 year old who is potty training isn't very easy. She is not used to using a potty that doesn't have a tiny seat with pictures on it. Fortunately after a few different tries and a lot of begging and bribing, she had success! By this point it was 6:00 and I was nearing the point of being late for work. I asked the nurse about a turnaround time on the test and explained that I was going to be late for work. I understood that this was a risk that I took going to the hospital and I have no problem with that but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. The nurse said that she would have Amanda released and they would call us with the results if they were positive. The doctor also told us that I could give Amanda both Motrin and Tylenol at the same time which I was not aware of so they gave her a dose of Tylenol and sent us on our way.

I got home and got Amanda settled with mom. Jon was exhausted too since Aidan was woken up by Amanda at around 4 and he did not go back to sleep. Jon and I were able to get ready for work and both out the door only a few minutes later than usual.

Roll up to the present. Since Tuesday morning we've been going through all the normal motions. The fever is not entirely gone but she has not come close to 104 since Monday. She is sleeping like crap! She wakes up (if she was even asleep) multiple times every night whining for me. She tells me she can't sleep and just cries and cries. At this point I don't know what to do for her. I'm exhausted and am lacking any patience for anything. My mom thinks that her ears could be hurting still and that is why she won't sleep. She has never once complained about her ears but that was the official diagnosis. I don't know what the problem is. We have one more dose of antibiotic to give today and I guess we'll just see from there.

Oh well, back to work. I just needed to get that out! Phew!