The first one involved a post-op fever and infection. The second one involved a viral infection and fever.
Last Wednesday, Miri woke up with a fever. We gave her Tylenol and ibuprofen as needed. I kept an eye on her. I even called the nurse at our pediatrician's office and asked if I should bring her in because, even though it was her first day of the fever, her cousin who I baby-sit had been diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, and I thought it might be a good idea to get her on antibiotics. But the nurse said to wait.
So I waited ... until that afternoon. Her fever shot up to 104.9, and I called the office again. This time the nurse said to bring her in. We saw the pediatrician who said she might have the flu (turns out she didn't, which we found out after the lab technician swabbed her nose ... but I swear she shoved that Q-tip up high enough to perform a frontal lobotomy), pneumonia or an infection. He prescribed amoxicillin and a steroid to help her crackling lungs, and told us to give her albuterol treatments and keep giving her Tylenol and ibuprofen.
After spending a horrible hour at Wal-mart (And why didn't you tell me you didn't have my new insurance information the FIRST TIME I spoke to you, huh?), we came home with plenty-0-medicine.
Miri doing one of her albuterol treatments. It's happy and sad at the same time that she'll sit still for these: happy because I don't have to set her in my lap and hold her hands the entire time so she won't rip the mask off her head. Sad because she's had to do it enough to know not to rip the mask off her head. She also tells you "all done" when the medicine's gone.The next day, she seemed to do better. Her fever only got up to 102.
And then we had Friday morning. Early Friday morning.
Miri woke up at 5 a.m. Her fever was over 106. We gave her Tylenol and stripped her down for a lukewarm bath. We decided to take her in.
I was scheduled to teach FAME all day Friday. Seth had the day off for "non-denominational spring holiday" (aka Easter or Good Friday), so he took her to the ER while I waited at home and got ready for the day.
Gratefully, the fever had gone down by the time he got there. They did a chest x-ray and determined that Miri had a viral infection in her lungs and possibly a kidney infection. The doctor told Seth to keep doing what we were doing and sent them both home.
Seth got to spend his glorious day off supervising medication and "Elmo's World" consumption. I spent the day trying not to botch my playing of "Für Elise" in front of 300 students and worrying about my little girl.
Saturday her fever was slight in the morning and disappeared in the afternoon. She's still got a lingering cough and snotty nose and we're still finishing off the amoxicillin, but I hope we can safely say that this one is behind us.