Dang! Poor Kid!

Jamie's spring break got off to a bang of a bad sort this year. Friday, he was fine and dandy - went to soccer practice, played with his friend Josh until 9 p.m., and was generally having a grand time. Saturday morning, Jamie woke up with a fever of 102.1. Despite alternating between Tylenol and Ibuprofen, his fever continued all day, spiking up to 105.9 at 11:00 p.m. Saturday night. Poor kid was burning up with fever so bad he was shaking and couldn't stop. I called the NurseWise hotline, and was told to immediately take Jamie to the ER, "Do not pass go, Do not collect $200" as the nurse said.

So we get to the ER, fill out the paperwork, then wait for a nurse to call us to triage. After an hour waiting just to see a nurse, they finally called us back to have his temperature taken and blood pressure checked. His pulse was extremely fast and thready, his blood pressure was too high for a 10 year old and the poor kid was having trouble breathing. His fever, however, had gone down slightly to 104.7. The nurse gave him a triple dose of Tylenol to help bring his fever down faster, then told us to wait for a doctor to see us. Another two hours goes by before we're called to see a doctor. By this time, Jamie's temperature has gone down to only 103.4. They immediately took Jamie off for x-rays, then brought him back and hooked him up to an IV and took a bunch of blood for tests. At this point, his fever had dropped to 102.

After another hour and a half (and three popsicles kindly provided by an awesome ER nurse), they came back and said it was a cold. Excuse me? Since when do colds cause fevers hot enough to boil your brain cells? Apparently, now they do. There's even strains of colds that can kill you. Ugh! The particular strain of cold Jamie has can also morph into pneumonia, which, as Jamie's doctor informed me yesterday, it has. So, poor kid is home sick with pneumonia on his spring break.

I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week home with him, but came back to work today. I got Jamie's fever to come down and stay down under 100, so I felt confident coming to work and leaving him home alone. After all, I don't leave for work until 8:27 in the morning, I'm home for 45 minutes at noon, then Rachel gets home at 3:00 from school. Also, I'm only 2 blocks (and three minutes) from the house. Still, I feel really bad for him. He was supposed to have soccer camp this week (didn't happen), and now he has a really nasty cough, stuffed up nose, body aches, sore throat and a headache. If his fever stays broken for 24 hours, I think a trip to Build-a-Bear will be in order for the poor little booger.

Oh, and that nasty cold? Jamie gave it to Rachel. I just hope hers doesn't turn into pneumonia, too. So far (knock on wood), I have yet to be felled by this nasty bug. Let's hope it stays that way!