It's viral

Saturday Chase seemed off.  He would fuss and seem uncomfortable after eating and just in general.  I thought it was gas pains but it just didn't go away.  We went to Touch A Truck that morning and it was pretty hot (by the way, Ethan hated all of the loud horns and would NOT sit on any of the cars/trucks--who would have thought?)  When we got home Chase felt warm so I took his temp.  At 3:30pm it was 101.1.  I kept my eye on it and tried to cool him down.  He got a little bit of Tylenol and it went down to 100.7, then 100.4 but a little over 2 hours after the first temp it was going back up to 100.9.  I called the pediatrician's office but of course the office had closed for the day.  They told me the proper dosage based on his weight so I gave him more Tylenol.  It was steadily going down and got to 100.4 at 7:20pm, but by 8:35pm it was back up to 101.0.  I called the office again but after a certain hour it goes to the Sharp triage nurse line.  I went through her questionaire over the phone and she paged the doctor on call at his office.  It was deemed necessary to go to the ER due to his young age (anything over 100.4 is of great concern in babies younger than 3 months).  We could have gone to Scripps Encinitas which is the closest but they suggested Children's because they are so good at doing babies bloodwork etc. 

LUCKILY, Eric's parents were in town from Washington so they stayed with Ethan and off we went.  We finally arrived and it was PACKED.  The guy in front of us was seeing where he was in line as it had already been an hour and a half and it was looking like at least another 30 minutes.  I was not looking forward to waiting 2 hours just to be triaged.  I asked the guy if the wait was indeed 2 hours and for a 9 week old he told me to ignore that conversation.  We sat down amidst the crowd.  Not 2 minutes later we were back in triage (it was 10:15pm)

This nice (male) nurse did his thing (weight, questions etc).  Chase's temp was 101.8!  He gave him 2.5ml of Tylenol and I had brought a bottle and my pump just in case.  We give Chase his Gripe Water when he gets the hiccups but he ends up spitting half of it out so now I just squirt it into the bottle nipple and he takes every drop.  So we did the same thing w/ the Tylenol.  It turns out it was too viscous for that little hole but the nurse was incredibly impressed with the method and we made swift friends.  He got us right back into the secondary waiting area and had to wait 20 minutes or so for a bed.

We got seen quickly (man they are efficient) and answered a million questions.  After this they checked him again as it had been 2 hours since the Tylenol dose.  It was still 101.8.  They needed urine so they stuck a catheter up his teeny peeny.  Eric couldn't watch.  They also did a blood culture.  This older phlebotomist came in and drew his blood.  He was SCREAMING but couldn't get the blood to flow.  So she had to do it again.  I'm bawling at this point as Chase is in major pain and I had flashbacks of them doing my IV when I was about to have Chase.  She finally got it on the other arm.  The urine was clear and we're still waiting for the blood culture to come back. 

It was deemed viral.  There is basically nothing we could do.  We returned home about 2am and he got another dose.  At 6am Sunday it was still 101.8.  More Tylenol.  At 8:40am it was 102.0!  He spent all day Sunday miserable and his temp fluctuated in the 101's and 102's.  It got up to 102.5 around 3pm Sunday then down to 101.3 and back up to 102.4 last night at 7pm.  It was up and down all night last night but at 8am this morning (Monday) it went to 100.5 and has been up and down today.  At 7pm tonight it was 99.9 so I think the worst is over.  He was starting to smile again today so that is great!



Washcloth over his head...poor guy



It's been a crazy weekend and we unfortunately didn't get to do all that was planned with Eric's parents quick trip but obviously Chase had other plans for us this weekend.  I'm just so glad my little angel is on the mend because it doesn't get any scarier to have your baby not well!