Hayden is Sick

Hayden has been sick for about a week now. But not the typical cough, sneeze, runny nose sick that one would expect a kid to have. Instead he's been running a fever for days now.

It started last Sunday. He felt warm to the touch but I wasn't home to check his temperature so I didn't check it until Monday. All day Monday it was about 100.9. I gave him Tylenol but that didn't seem to help much. Tuesday morning he was burning up so I gave him more Tylenol and called the doctor. We went in to see him and they checked his nose, throat and ears. All were fine. Because of his previous history with having fluid in his kidneys they wanted to get a urine sample from him. They inserted a catheter and pressed on his bladder which let out big soggy tears. It hurt my heart to see him in pain. Once they were done, he was fine again but it was still upsetting. The urine test came came fine- no infection. Thank goodness.

The next step would have been to do a blood test but we decided to not put him through any more torture. Since Wednesday was a holiday, the doctors office was closed. The doctor gave us the option to take a blood sample from him or to wait it out til Thursday to see if the fever would go away on it's own. We waited.

The fever didn't go away. It was averaging about 102 but went all the way up to 103.7 and as low as 101. Wednesday night he got sick and threw up all over me and down my shirt. Talk about gross. We both got cleaned up then went to bed. Thursday morning we noticed that he still had a dry diaper and got concerned. At that point he had about 10 ounces of milk in him yet no pee was coming out. I fed him cereal and milk and shortly after eating that he threw up again. I called the doctor back and they suggested we just head to the hospital to be treated for possible dehydration.

We head to the hospital after Hayden's nap (about 4:00pm) and he still has a dry diaper. At this point I'm afraid they're going to have to put an IV into his little arms to hydrate him. The weird thing about all of this is that before the vomiting started, Hayden's only symptom was fever. Otherwise he was acting normal, eating normal, playing and happy. If he weren't hot to the touch and flushed you'd never know something was wrong with him. The doctor examined him and said he looked good. He gave him meds to help with nausea, thinking that would allow him to drink milk and keep it down. While waiting in the ER, he napped for about half an hour, then woke up and drank 4 oz of milk and an ounce and a half of diluted juice. Then after 17 or so hours, he had a wet diaper. yay! The doc on call was happy with that so he gave us a prescription for anti-nausea medication and sent us on our way. Again he gave us the option of hooking him up to an IV to hydrate him but we opted not to.

So far, the fever is mostly gone- it's still about 100 but he looks so much better. Though I think his stomach is still bothering him because he's not eating much. We had the Rx filled at Walgreen's and instead of filling it as written in a dissolvable tablet, they filled it as a liquid. Hayden did not react well to the liquid, gagged on it, then threw it up along with his dinner. ugh. The next day we called the pharmacy to refill it as a tablet and they said they couldn't fill the same Rx twice once the medication has left their pharmacy. The reason they filled it as a liquid in the first place is because our insurance wouldn't pay for the tablet. So Walgreen's had to call the hospital and speak with the on-call doctor and have him refax another prescription. They filled it the proper way, but we had to pay out of pocket for it.

Anyway, I've stopped giving him Tylenol since his fever is down, but he's still not eating much. Rather than eating 4-5 bottles a day, he's eating 2-3 in addition to cereal. He's taking the cereal pretty well, but he's not interested in any kind of liquids even when I give him the nausea medication. I don't know if it's working but he seemed to be keeping food down. And he's not acting like he's hungry. Until tonight when he puked all over me again before he went to bed. There's something about having a pool of vomit sloshing in your bra that is rather unappealing. This time I got some in my mouth too. Nasty to the nth degree.

Hayden also has a rash covering his body. The doctor said this might happen after his fever broke so we weren't too concerned once it appeared. It's not itching or bothering him that I can tell. It started under his arm on his left side and it has spread all over his torso, his neck and scalp and a tad over his face. I'm not sure how long this will last, but he just can't seem to catch a break. He's never been sick before so this is just a lot to happen over a course of one week.

On top of all that, he's not been sleeping well. I don't know if it's because his stomach is bothering him, if he's hurting or what. He wakes a couple times a night looking for his pacifier and then he goes back to sleep. Sometimes I'll rock him if I need to, but it's not always necessary. The past few nights though, he's been waking up any where between 3 and 5 am, crying abruptly and hysterically. He's inconsolable, doesn't want to be held, and just starts kicking me. I don't know what's going on. It lasts for a few minutes then he goes back to sleep. Because he's not sleeping well, he's taking an extra nap during the day to make up for it.

It's just been a rough week here in the H household. My mom's birthday was Thursday and I planned to make her dinner and a cake but we ended up spending our time in the ER instead so that didn't happen. I invited the family over tonight for her birthday dinner and while here, she tried to give him Tylenol and Orajel for his teething and she gave him gas drops.

She drives me crazy. EVERY time she babysits she gives him Tylenol and Orajel because "He's teething bad" as she would say. I don't give him meds unless it's absolutely necessary. I don't just pump his body full of crap hoping that one of those elixirs will fix him. I don't even know that he had gas but she gave him drops anyway. I know he was hesitant to eat and maybe that's why she thought he was gassy, but I was just giving him time to develop an appetite before trying again. I wanted to try giving him milk to see if he would take it before giving him the nausea medication. He wouldn't so I gave him a tablet. Later he ate.

After I gave him the meds, she took him to change his diaper. I was on the phone and the next thing I know she's digging in the diaper bag looking for Orajel and Tylenol because his teeth are bothering him. Honestly? He's been biting down and sticking his hands in his mouth since he was three months old. He didn't get teeth until 9 months. I've given him Tylenol and teething gels and he still bites down and chews on his thumb and other toys. It's not a cure-all and I'm not going to keep giving him dose after dose just because he's chewing on his pacifier. I stopped her from giving him more meds and offered a cold teether instead. 2 minutes later she said, "he doesn't want those". She annoys me.

I went to put Hayden to bed and Mr. H walked my mom out to her car. She had the nerve to ask him "why doesn't she give him what he needs?" referring to medication. How dare she? I do my absolute best to care for Hayden. Sure I make mistakes and I'm not the worlds best mom but I'm trying. Does she think if I gave him a daily does of Tylenol that I'd be a better mom? I'm pissed at her so I haven't talked to he about this yet. I made turkey pesto meatballs and spaghetti for dinner. Before she even tasted them, she gave away two of her meatballs to my brother. Apparently I served her too much. She ending up eating half of her spaghetti and left the meatballs because she "doesn't like meatballs", but then claimed that "dinner was good". Um, I'm glad she liked the jarred Prego sauce because that's all she ate. How rude can one be? If someone made me a birthday dinner, I'd be cordial and eat it even if I didn't think it was the best meal.

Whatever, I'm just annoyed so I'm venting. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. If you have any input on Hayden's illness or sleeping issues, I'd love to hear it. Some people have suggested that it could be Roseola, but I'm not convinced since the symptoms didn't quite match up. Anyone else experience any of this with their kids?