Normally I'd just treat the fever and ride it out for a couple of days, but since we were flying home the next day I decided to take him in. Brett and Jeff gave him a blessing (oh, wonderful brothers!!) and Mom took the two of us to urgent care.
About an hour (and very fussy baby) later, we got in. When they took his temperature (103.7 at this point), the doctor came in immediately. The nurse gave him some Tylenol and re-checked his temp a bit later. It was going down. However, since there were no other symptoms other than a fever (ears & throat were fine, no rash, no runny nose...), they decided to draw some blood to find out if whatever it was was bacterial so I could get him on some antibiotics before we left to go home. Two nurses and two needles later, they sent us to the hospital lab for someone with more experience drawing blood from babies.
I write this like I was so calm during the entire episode. HA. I think I would have been fine if it hadn't been for all the waiting. Waiting in the lobby, waiting in the exam room...more of that, having to go to the hospital (where I hadn't been since Elise was born there!), waiting there...I was physically and emotionally drained. And hungry! So was Lincoln--we gave him some food in the car on the way to the hospital, and that really helped calm him down. Imagine that. After, oh, nearly 3 hours at urgent care my little guy was starving!!
At the hospital it took two more nurses and two more pokes before they struck blood. We could finally go home. Mom put Lincoln to bed--she could tell I was way too exhausted to deal with a crying baby--and he actually went down for her. Hallelujah!
About 45 minutes later we got a call from the urgent care doctor who said that preliminary test results came back that showed suspicions of a UTI, so could I bring Lincoln back to the clinic for a powerful antibiotic shot? YES, I could do that. Anything to help my little guy! So we dragged my poor baby out of bed and took him in for a big fat shot of antibiotics. And then had to wait again to make sure he didn't stop breathing as a reaction to the medication. Oy.
He didn't, and we were home by 10:15pm. Our adventure had lasted nearly 7 hours. NOT FUN.
His fever was gone the next day, and we went on our merry way. In Denver I got a call from the urgent care clinic saying that he, in fact, did not have a UTI, so don't give him the other prescription! It was probably something viral. Okay. I'm down with that.
So, in the end, Lincoln had some mystery sickness that involved a super-high fever...and nothing else. We'll never know if it was bacterial or viral, though that powerful shot of antibiotics might possibly have helped.
And now to wait for the bills...double oy.
He was great on both flights--slept from Denver to MSP. We were both happy and relieved to see Stephen drive up to pick us up and take us home. Home is Oregon, but home is also where my husband and kids are. It's good to be home.
If you made it through all of that, you deserve a medal. :o)
4 comments:
Ooohh Claire - what a nightmare!! there is something so painful about holding your baby still while they poke around in his tiny arm to try and get blood - just breaks your heart! I'm glad you had family there to help and comfort. Hope all is better now!
no fun to have a sick baby when traveling, hope he is better and you got some good sleep!
Oh so he DIDN'T end up having a UTI?? I hadn't heard that. How mysterious... Glad you survived the affair! Jonathan seems to ALWAYS get sick when we travel, esp fly. So miserable for everyone involved.
ok, weird story....Kyler had almost the exact same thing. I think it was the weekend right before this, and even stranger was, we were at my parents house at the time and I took him into the urgent care too. And they thought he had a UTI. But it was almost identical, he had a super high fever for 4 days, always 103+ and even hit 104+. And then nothing. Ugh, I'm so sorry you had to deal with that on your own and so far from home. love ya!
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