Saturday Night Fever

Remember a few posts ago how I gloated over the fact that I sent my daughter to Utah and was enjoying the quietness of my house? Well just so you know, it is not a good idea to mock the Gods of Murphy. Especially in writing on a public forum. Because They will go to extreme measures to spit on your parade. Just saying.

This spitting involved my daughter getting a fever of 103 which did not go away for 6 days. Of course shortly after I posted about my giddiness at being short one child, my sister called to tell me that she finally found her thermometer and actually took Diana's temp. Are we related or what? I can't even think of how many times I have been to a doctor and said, "I know he/she has had a fever for a few days, but I don't know exactly what it is because I can't find my thermometer."

Anyway, once a thermometer was located and actually used the result was 103. Holy burning up Batman! I don't think this child has ever had a fever that high.

Let's just flashback one year, pretty much exactly to the day. That time is was Jared with the fever. And that didn't turn out very well, i.e. near death experience, 10 days on the ventilator, 5 surgeries, 18 days in the PICU, and 25 days total in the hospital. Now a rational person would realize that there is no reason to think that Diana's fever would end up the same way. But I have never been really known for my rational thinking. Rationalizations, yes. Rational thinking, no.

I should probably include the detail that she had been coughing and complaining of a sore throat. So I took her to my pediatrician the day before she went to Utah. Her ears were clear and the Doctor even tested her throat for Strep. Nothing. The doctor could see no reason for her to not go. So I sent her. Of course Murphy paid us a visit when the fever showed up.

And so I encouraged my sister to take Diana in to her pediatrician, even though it was in another state and my insurance wasn't really going to cover it. This pediatrician found her ears to be clear. He checked again for strep. He even tested her for influenza/swine flu. Negative to all of it. He said it must be viral and should only last for a few days.

I attended this appointment via the speaker phone option on my cell phone. Can I just say that is not a bad way to attend a doctor appointment. I just sat there on my couch and panicked in the comfort of my own home. I felt bad to inconvenience my sister. She said it was one of the best doctor appointments she has been to because she didn't have to do crowd control on her small children. No one tried to lick the inside of the garbage can. No one tried to pull all the paper that lines the examine table out of the roll. Well I am glad I could giver her a glimpse of how it will be someday, if she lives through the joy of toddler hood.

So after that doctor appointment I considered getting in the car and driving to Utah. But my sister assured me that she had things covered and that it wasn't really that big of a deal. Jared did need to be doing some summer school stuff and so I stayed in Vegas. I felt so torn. It was horrible.

Several days later she still was not doing very well. I talked to my sister in the morning and she told me that it was still OK. I started doing laundry to prepare to go the next day. A few hours later my sister called me back and said that Diana seemed to be doing worse. That was it. I just bundled up my dirty laundry, and Jared and headed to Utah.

Can I just say that it is kind of stressful to try to cautiously speed? I wanted to be there pronto, but I did not want to get a ticket. Quite the conundrum.

Finally we got there at 10 pm. Diana was relieved to see me. I actually tried sleeping in the same queen bed with her that night. Bad idea. She was up all night long. It was reassuring to be able to reach over and put my hand on her chest to check to see if she was still breathing.

After the horrible no good night, I decided to take her back in to the doctor. He still could not see anything else wrong. So he sent us to get the blood work done. All of this was such a de ja vu experience. Remember I took Jared to a doctor who found nothing wrong with him just 4 days before he was hospitalized. So hard to keep those thoughts of terror from crowding in.

I felt better to know that we could see more in the blood test. Diana was not happy to get a shot, but she was a trooper through the whole thing. Later that day the doctor's office called to say that everything looked normal.

And so after three visits to the doctor, the next day her fever broke and she started getting better.

Of course now several of my nephews are coming down with fevers. This week the rest of my family is suppose to arrive in Spanish Fork. Sounds like the beginning of a great Family Reunion with people getting sick, huh?

And so I may be missing in action from the blogosphere. Sometimes I get a minute to still check in. Hope all of you are having better vacations.

Oh and can I just say how glad I am to be wrong and not end up in the hospital. Thank goodness I do not need to learn more by having a repeat expereince.