103.4
103.4
that was the temperature Riley had in the 3rd day of her fever.
i had just finished reading this right before the weekend. i felt sick reading that. it kind of hit me how much things have changed. before having Riley i would have felt terrible for Lamar Odom, but when i read it two weeks ago, i wanted to call Lamar on the phone and cry with him. i was so sad. i still am. which brings us to the weekend.
skyla had plans to hangout with the girls on saturday. she was going to an Indigo Girls concert at the portland zoo. it was a hot summer day and we don't have air conditioning.
so Riley and i are hanging out in the house in our underwear; the windows are open and the fan is blowing. it's hot, but not too bad. we're playing on the floor with her new plush soccer ball (futbol). after awhile she looks a little tired so i think it's time to change her, feed her and put her down for a nap. i pick her up and she feels really hot. at first i think it's just the summer weather, but i certainly don't feel that hot. i decide to take her temperature. it quickly goes past normal and continues rising, finally stopping at 101.4.
ok, that's not too bad, i thought. babies have weird temperatures sometimes, or at least that's what i read at some point, somewhere. i quickly call skyla cause i'm a man (sheesh, what a stereotype) and i'm not sure how to handle a sick baby, plus i didn't know our doctors phone number (yikes!). her phone goes to voicemail. i leave a message, just a short "hey it's me, call me back when you get this". don't want to worry her if it's nothing. in the meantime i'm looking up our doctor's phone number on the internet and also looking up fevers in 6 to 9 month old babies.
the internet can be a scary or comforting place depending how you put your search into google.
it was saturday so there was an answering service when i called the doctor. i was told a nurse would get back to me in 20 or 30 minutes. i thought that was a good sign seeing as how i told the woman that my daughter had a high temperature. must not be too bad.
Riley was still pretty hot to the touch, but she was otherwise acting totally normal. she was still eating and wasn't acting "out of it". i went into the kitchen and got a washcloth and wet her hair and placed it around her neck. i took her temperature again and it was rising. it was now at 102.2.
the nurse finally calls back. she asks me questions on how Riley is feeling, if she's eating, are there any other symptoms beside the fever. i let her know that 3 weeks ago Riley had an ear infection that was treated with antibiotics. the antibiotics made her have diarrhea, which in turn lead to a yeast infection all over her bottom. so i was telling the nurse all this thinking that there might be a connection.
she didn't think so. she asked me what her temperature was now and i told her it was 102.2. she then suggested that i take her into the emergency room at the children's hospital.
i called skyla to let her know what the nurse had said and she told me she was on her way back home. it's a funny thing being a parent. if something happens to your son/daughter while you're away, you feel like it never would have happened if you hadn't left. that's how skyla was feeling anyway. it was my job to talk her down and tell her that Riley was going to be fine.
skyla picked us up at the house and we drove to the hospital 15 minutes away. i dropped skyla and Riley off at the entrance and parked the car. when i arrived, they were taking Riley's pulse. her demeanor was so funny. she was just curious. reaching for stuff, looking around. i know if i had her fever, i'd be feeling sorry for myself. maybe she just didn't know any better.
the doctors checked her temperature and it was around 102. they gave her some children's tylenol and visually checked her for meningitis, pneumonia and other possible explanations of her fever. they took some of her urine by way of a catheter to check for a Urinary Tract Infection. this was the most probable cause of the fever. then we waited for the test to come back.
after an hour or so the doctor came and told us that the test was negative. that it was a Fever of Unknown Origin. that makes it sound scary huh? at first i was thinking, well now we know as much as we did when we came in here. then i started thinking that if we didn't know what it was, at least we know more about what it isn't. does that make sense?
so we took her home. we were charged with "maintaining" the fever. this involved giving her 5ml of children's tylenol every four hours. so we watched her closely on sunday and her temperature fluctuated between 100 to 102. rising and falling with the tylenol.
during the night on sunday we stayed up with her while she fought to fall asleep. praying over her, keeping her hair wet and washing her body with a wet washcloth. we couldn't give her more tylenol since we had reached the daily maximum of 5 doses per 24 hours. we couldn't give her more till 6 in the morning.
we took her temperature around 5 in the morning and it quickly moved passed the 101 mark and rising. i keep telling it to slow down, slow down. it passed 102.5 and kept going. i was feeling sick inside. it finally topped off at 103.4 and i wanted to pick her up and force the fever out of her. her face was flush and her eyebrows were an angry red. she kept tossing and turning in her sleep. we prayed over her again.
finally, 6am rolled around. i rushed downstairs and made her a bottle with 5ml of tylenol. we got ready to go to her doctor's office which opened at 8. we felt good that she was still eating and still showed no other symptoms along with her fever. again, the internet can be a comforting or scary place.
by the time we reached the doctor's office, Riley's temperature had come down to 99.4. the doctor looked her over and agreed with the ER doctors about what it wasn't. so she said to just keep an eye on her. i never thought going to the ER or the pediatrician was a waste of time. if anything, it was somebody telling you that what you were doing was right; that they provide a comfort to you when you didn't know what to think.
Riley's fever broke later that evening. you could see the little difference in her spirit when it did. i'm sure that we're in for many more little adventures just like this. some a little scarier, some not.
the thing that keeps tripping me out is how much we needed each other, how this little insular group of people kept becoming something special through no fault of our own. while i was scared for Riley and her fever; while skyla was sick with worry, we were becoming a family.
that was the temperature Riley had in the 3rd day of her fever.
i had just finished reading this right before the weekend. i felt sick reading that. it kind of hit me how much things have changed. before having Riley i would have felt terrible for Lamar Odom, but when i read it two weeks ago, i wanted to call Lamar on the phone and cry with him. i was so sad. i still am. which brings us to the weekend.
skyla had plans to hangout with the girls on saturday. she was going to an Indigo Girls concert at the portland zoo. it was a hot summer day and we don't have air conditioning.
so Riley and i are hanging out in the house in our underwear; the windows are open and the fan is blowing. it's hot, but not too bad. we're playing on the floor with her new plush soccer ball (futbol). after awhile she looks a little tired so i think it's time to change her, feed her and put her down for a nap. i pick her up and she feels really hot. at first i think it's just the summer weather, but i certainly don't feel that hot. i decide to take her temperature. it quickly goes past normal and continues rising, finally stopping at 101.4.
ok, that's not too bad, i thought. babies have weird temperatures sometimes, or at least that's what i read at some point, somewhere. i quickly call skyla cause i'm a man (sheesh, what a stereotype) and i'm not sure how to handle a sick baby, plus i didn't know our doctors phone number (yikes!). her phone goes to voicemail. i leave a message, just a short "hey it's me, call me back when you get this". don't want to worry her if it's nothing. in the meantime i'm looking up our doctor's phone number on the internet and also looking up fevers in 6 to 9 month old babies.
the internet can be a scary or comforting place depending how you put your search into google.
it was saturday so there was an answering service when i called the doctor. i was told a nurse would get back to me in 20 or 30 minutes. i thought that was a good sign seeing as how i told the woman that my daughter had a high temperature. must not be too bad.
Riley was still pretty hot to the touch, but she was otherwise acting totally normal. she was still eating and wasn't acting "out of it". i went into the kitchen and got a washcloth and wet her hair and placed it around her neck. i took her temperature again and it was rising. it was now at 102.2.
the nurse finally calls back. she asks me questions on how Riley is feeling, if she's eating, are there any other symptoms beside the fever. i let her know that 3 weeks ago Riley had an ear infection that was treated with antibiotics. the antibiotics made her have diarrhea, which in turn lead to a yeast infection all over her bottom. so i was telling the nurse all this thinking that there might be a connection.
she didn't think so. she asked me what her temperature was now and i told her it was 102.2. she then suggested that i take her into the emergency room at the children's hospital.
i called skyla to let her know what the nurse had said and she told me she was on her way back home. it's a funny thing being a parent. if something happens to your son/daughter while you're away, you feel like it never would have happened if you hadn't left. that's how skyla was feeling anyway. it was my job to talk her down and tell her that Riley was going to be fine.
skyla picked us up at the house and we drove to the hospital 15 minutes away. i dropped skyla and Riley off at the entrance and parked the car. when i arrived, they were taking Riley's pulse. her demeanor was so funny. she was just curious. reaching for stuff, looking around. i know if i had her fever, i'd be feeling sorry for myself. maybe she just didn't know any better.
the doctors checked her temperature and it was around 102. they gave her some children's tylenol and visually checked her for meningitis, pneumonia and other possible explanations of her fever. they took some of her urine by way of a catheter to check for a Urinary Tract Infection. this was the most probable cause of the fever. then we waited for the test to come back.
after an hour or so the doctor came and told us that the test was negative. that it was a Fever of Unknown Origin. that makes it sound scary huh? at first i was thinking, well now we know as much as we did when we came in here. then i started thinking that if we didn't know what it was, at least we know more about what it isn't. does that make sense?
so we took her home. we were charged with "maintaining" the fever. this involved giving her 5ml of children's tylenol every four hours. so we watched her closely on sunday and her temperature fluctuated between 100 to 102. rising and falling with the tylenol.
during the night on sunday we stayed up with her while she fought to fall asleep. praying over her, keeping her hair wet and washing her body with a wet washcloth. we couldn't give her more tylenol since we had reached the daily maximum of 5 doses per 24 hours. we couldn't give her more till 6 in the morning.
we took her temperature around 5 in the morning and it quickly moved passed the 101 mark and rising. i keep telling it to slow down, slow down. it passed 102.5 and kept going. i was feeling sick inside. it finally topped off at 103.4 and i wanted to pick her up and force the fever out of her. her face was flush and her eyebrows were an angry red. she kept tossing and turning in her sleep. we prayed over her again.
finally, 6am rolled around. i rushed downstairs and made her a bottle with 5ml of tylenol. we got ready to go to her doctor's office which opened at 8. we felt good that she was still eating and still showed no other symptoms along with her fever. again, the internet can be a comforting or scary place.
by the time we reached the doctor's office, Riley's temperature had come down to 99.4. the doctor looked her over and agreed with the ER doctors about what it wasn't. so she said to just keep an eye on her. i never thought going to the ER or the pediatrician was a waste of time. if anything, it was somebody telling you that what you were doing was right; that they provide a comfort to you when you didn't know what to think.
Riley's fever broke later that evening. you could see the little difference in her spirit when it did. i'm sure that we're in for many more little adventures just like this. some a little scarier, some not.
the thing that keeps tripping me out is how much we needed each other, how this little insular group of people kept becoming something special through no fault of our own. while i was scared for Riley and her fever; while skyla was sick with worry, we were becoming a family.
posted by benji at 10:19 PM
3 comments
