My Night From Hell

[celiac-mommy]

We had a snow day yesterday, so it was my dh's turn to stay home with the kids while I braved the roads to work. I worked a 12 at the hospital and at about 6, dh called and said my 3yo son felt really warm (but was wearing 2 tshirts and a sweatshirt) and had not made it to the bathroom 3x in the last hour--he NEVER pees his pants. I asked him to remove his shirts and take his temperature. Now to preface, dh is an amazing dad and loves his kids more than anything, however, he thinks I'm over the top neurotic with the kids AND he doesn't believe in medicating the kids for anything--and I only do WHEN it's necessary. On ds's 1st birthday, he spiked a temp of 105 3 hours into a dose of Motrin and had a seizure in my arms. He's very susceptable to these high fevers and needs to be medicated sooner rather than later, hopefully by age 5 this will get better.... Anyway, I get home, it's snowing so hard at this point. I walk into the house and the poor kid, still in 2 tshirts, is laying on the couch completely lethargic. DH is working on the computer. I ask what the temp was, he says, "I don't know, I didn't take it, he was fine an hour ago" I say he's burning up, DH says "so" (because he thinks I'm over-reacting at this point). Temp is 103, I give him Motrin and call the dr. We end up in the emergency room, luckily not too busy, and they determine he has a UTI and want to put him on antibiotics--the nearest pharmacy open at 1130pm is 20 minutes away and it's still snowing and now frozen (we had to wait another half hour for the pharmacist to find one that's gluten-free and he's allergic to penacillin). I decide to monitor him during the night and keep up with the meds, go to check on him, he's 2 hours from needing more Motrin, and he's burning up again-I got at least 104 before he started writhing around. Of course we had no Tylenol to piggyback wwith the Motrin, DH now sees how dire this is and he braved the roads to get me the Tylenol. I knew it would be about a 1/2 hour before he came back, so I used the kangaroo hold I used when they were babies and basically used skin to skin contact to calm him and TRY to keep the temp down (I spooned his back against my torso), it actually brought the temp down a 1/2 degree. Gave the Tylenol and then 3 hours later gave the Motrin, finally feeling I could sleep at 3-4am. He's doing mildly better this morning, but now I have to figure out how to get to the pharmacy because we got a couple more inches of snow last night. I'm so glad he's even a little better this morning, he scared me!! And, DH apologized and thanked me for realizing how sick he really was......I'm still a little frustrated though

[jerseyangel]

Oh Rachelle--what an awful night I hope the worst is over and your son recovers quickly. I was scared for you as I read this.

[Jestgar]

Gads! Stupid men. None of 'em would survive without women to take care of them.

[Mother of Jibril]

How awful!

Have you ever tried a lukewarm bath? My son was running a temperature as high as 104 degrees this summer (even on Tylenol)... he ended up having meningitis. The baths really helped bring his fever down for a while. Just make sure the water is not too cold, otherwise his fever will spike again from the shivering.

[celiac-mommy]

He was shivering already right before I did the skin to skin. He wasn't seizing yet, but I could tell that he wasn't far off. I managed to get the antibiotics this morning, so he's had one dose and I'm managing to keep his temp around 101. I did let him go out in the snow for a bit this morning and he had a blast, but now he's tired again. To add insult to injury, I came into the kitchen after I had settled him in (in the middle of the night) and my dh had spaced it out and following the directions on his chinese food dinner-not gluten-free-grabbed the 10 inch skillet, which happens to be cast iron and is NEVER supposed to touch gluten, big NO NO in the house (and he knows that) not only cooked his dinner in it, but left it to make a nice crust in the bottom of the pan. That's about the point where I lost it. Here it was, after midnight, and I'm trying to boil off the remnants and then scour all of the seasoning I've been working so hard to make. If he had been standing in front of me at that point, I probably would have hit him with it I'm not really sure how they'd ever survive without me (God willing, they'll never have to)......not that I'm perfect by any stretch, but at least I have all my ducks in a row, even if it's more on the side of OCD

[DingoGirl]

Your poor baby! And poor you! What a scary time!

Men! glad you're there and on top of this, what a terrible worry......

now - step away from the skillet......

[jerseyangel]

now - step away from the skillet......

Yes! I admire the restraint it took not to bean him with it!

I'm sure he's normally a very nice guy, though

[celiac-mommy]

Yes! I admire the restraint it took not to bean him with it!

I'm sure he's normally a very nice guy, though

Yes, normally a nice guy. He's one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life, he just doesn't give things a lot of thought before doing or saying-how it will affect anyone other than himself, not that he's selfish at all, just doesn't think sometimes. I'm over-emotional and he's very under-emotional. We've been married for over 10 years, we must fit somehow... maybe by year 20 I'll figure it out