High Maintenance Mom

Some parenting questions are easy to answer. For example the question, "should I let my two year-old play with my new Henckels knife set" rarely requires much thought. But the question of whether to take a child to the doctor, often after hours, is harder to answer. A friend, whom I called this weekend, said her doctor told her to bring in a child anytime they are listless. N, who is normally running full speed, was listless and on Sunday night his fever had increased to 103 degrees...

We ended up giving him Motrin before bed and trying to keep a cool washcloth on his forehead but he was still hot and listless in the morning. Somehow in the seconds between thinking he was running a fever and hot because of his warm blanket and realizing he needed more help to get better, my ability to worry increased exponentially. When N was five weeks old he ran a similar fever. On Friday evening he seemed warm and sleepy but by noon on Saturday the mom alert went off in my brain and my attention was all of the sudden focused just on N.

I took his temperature and called the after hours place. I brought him in and was then told we needed to go to the hospital immediately. At the hospital they did blood work, a urine analysis, and a spinal tap (more on all of this another time). We then started antibiotics immediately and were moved, by ambulance, to another hospital where there was more space for infants. It was determined that N had meningitis but it was unclear if it was bacterial or viral. After three days of not having the bacteria grow in the petri dish, we were told it was most likely viral and we could go home. The experience could have been much worse but I have no interest in ever repeating it. When N woke yesterday saying he had a headache, words we had not heard from him before, our focus shifted from all the other things that needed to be done, to getting a doctor's appointment.

It turned out N has a bad sinus infection and we are using an antibiotic plus rotating Children's Motrin and Children's Tylenol (although I can't find a dye-free tylenol). Thinking back, we should have guessed sinus infection with his obviously infected runny nose last week. His fever has been spiking since Sunday but he's feeling better now that he's started antibiotics, which means I can start focusing on all the other things I've ignored while he watches his favorite DVD, Where the Garbage Goes...

Related posts:

• Week long runny noses and sinus infections for all
• Choosing your allergy medications - red dye 33 and 40 vs. saccharin
• Pediatric Telephone Advice
• Please eat...
• Dealing with the cuts and bruises
• Another ear infection - why didn't we realize this earlier