Fighting a Fever

Adrianna has been sick all weekend and today with a high fever. It has gotten as high as 104 but more often is 103 and 102. The fever reducers haven’t been helping much, which is unusual for her. Even though I do like the extra cuddles from her when she is sick, it is times like these that are the most difficult for me as a parent. Worry, worry, worry. The nights are especially hard and find me up every couple of hours to check her temperature or dole out medicine.

We ran her to the urgent care facility here on last night at about 12:45 a.m. only to find that they closed early even though, according to their website, we were there within their open hours. ARGH. That was frustrating. So we went back home and waited it out, knowing our regular doctor would be open today. I especially knew she was a pretty sick little girl when we were able to bring her to bed with us and she actually went right to sleep. Normally when we try to bring her to bed with us when she is sick she perks up and wants to bounce on the bed or play. So this was a first.

This morning at about 4:00 a.m. her fever finally broke. This left her feeling cold and clammy to the touch with a low temperature of only 97. So then I am freaking out the other way. How low is too low? I didn’t sleep much last night as I was too busy watching her sleep, panicking at every variation in her breathing patterns and taking her temperature every half hour to make sure it didn’t dip any lower.

When she finally woke up for the day around 8, her temperature was back to 99. Whew. This I could handle. I stayed home from work and we took it easy. But then she woke up from her nap crying, and her fever had spiked back to 103. I called the doctor and they squeezed us in right away. I love my doctor’s office for this.

They checked her out and no ear infection, no strep throat. The doctor’s next step was to check for a urinary tract infection, which isn’t uncommon for little girls. So here is something I never would have thought of prior to today. How do you take a urine sample from a toddler (or baby) who isn’t potty trained? It isn’t like you can just hand them a cup and send them to the bathroom to fill it up. Luckily they have a way though. They have this plastic bag that you stick to her little private parts inside her diaper and it is supposed to catch the pee. She cried when she peed; I think because it became uncomfortable. So then you have to squeeze the contents into the little jar. Fun. But at least they have a way and we could do it in the comfort of our own home and then just bring in the sample. And sure enough; the results indicate that she does have that infection.

We started the antibiotics tonight. She just woke up crying and we took her temperature and the fever has broken again – 98.2. Hooray! Greg is now upstairs rocking her in our glider chair. My poor baby girl.