The First of Many

As many of you know, Isla was sick for much of the week. On Sunday morning she woke up shaking with a fever. By the afternoon, the fever broke, but she was totally exhausted. We put her to bed before her bedtime and she was happy to go down. We went to check on her at 11pm to find her burning up. When I took her temperature, it was 104.7 and she started vomiting. I have never even heard of a temperature over 103 (which shows you how naive I am). After a phone call to my friend Heidi and my mom, we were headed to the ER.

Dave ran every red light and we got there in what seemed like no time. Once we stepped into the hospital, she continued vomiting, violently. They took us back right away. Her heart rate was in excess of 200 beats per minute. Crazy. They gave her something for nausea, then some Motrin & Tylenol. The doc also ordered a catheter, which was rough. By about 1:30am, her fever started coming down and she was holding down so liquid. By the time we left, she was assaulting all the nurses with her "hi!".

She woke up the next morning with a fever again. The hospital had told me I wasn't giving her enough Motrin. They gave me a dispenser and told me to give her 5ml of Motrin. So that's what I did. When I was talking to my friend Amy the next morning, she told me that 5ml would be the dose for CHILDREN's Motrin. I was giving her INFANT's Motrin which is concentrated. Again, I called Heidi, who called her sister Laurel, who told me to call the Doctor. The doc's office initially told me it was fine, then the doctor called back and said to bring her in with everything I had given her. Turns out, I gave her 3 times the dose she should have received. It wasn't enough to hurt her, but plenty enough to make her really sleepy. I stuck with Tylenol the rest of the day. She slept for a while, but her fever spiked again that night and she started vomiting again. She refused all liquids so we had to hold her down and give her syringes full of water and Pedialyte to prevent dehydration. The fever came and went over the next few days. Wednesday night when I put her in the bathtub, I noticed she had a rash. I thought maybe it was Roseola and that we would be done with this thing. She woke up at 2am crying her little heart out. I called my Aunt Linda again and she insisted that I take her back to the doc. Turns out, it wasn't Roseola, just a rash from the prolonged fever....and she had an ear infection in both ears. While I was at the doctor's office, I also noticed articles about the recall on Tylenol and Motrin. When I got home, I found out all of the Tylenol I had been giving her had been recalled (4 separate bottles). Fortunately, there were no reported medical problems due to the recall, but still, it made me quite anxious.

By Friday morning, our little coconut was happy as a clam. No fever, eating, drinking and LOVING her bubblegum Amoxicillan (I so wish that I could have that when I have ear infections). Thanks to everyone who was praying. I've never felt so helpless, but I've had friends who have been through much more difficult and scary illnesses with their children. I don't know how they did it. My dad kept telling me that although this was the first time she'd been really sick, it certainly wouldn't be the last. I felt it appropriate to blog about it so I can look back when we have another kid with a high fever and realize that we will probably both survive.

This is when I should've known something was wrong.

First, she was cuddling with Dave. It was sweet, but she's not a cuddler.

And she could barely keep her eyes open.

Sitting still while watching Baby Can Read.

We usually have to trap her in her jumper.

The rash on her cute buns.

If you give a mouse a nap on the couch...

She'll ask for an M&M when she wakes up feeling better.

Thank you to all our parents, Heidi (& Laurel), Amy, Aunt Linda, Dr. Park-Davis (because I called the emergency line every single night at least once) and everyone else who we bothered incessantly over the course of the past five days. We are so blessed to have you in our lives! Thanks for loving Isla (and loving me despite the fact that I was totally neurotic this week.)