Home Sick Part II

I thought that Nathan was on the mend when his fever broke yesterday and he felt like getting out of bed. He ate a ham and cheese sandwich for supper and seemed more like himself. I dosed him with ibuprofen before going to bed to make sure he was comfortable.

He woke me up at 2 am with words that shot through my heart like a bolt of lightening, "I'm hot and my stomach hurts." If you recall, vomiting is a symptom of viral encephalitis and I was warned by his doctor to keep an eye out for it. I threw the covers back in a more than slight panic and asked him to repeat what he had said. As he was about to comply, he let out a burp that would make any audience of 6-10 year old boys cheer and then said, "Wait, no. I feel better." I nearly laughed out loud in relief and then went about the business of taking his temperature and dosing him.

I looked at the read-out in horror....106.2 degrees. 106.2 degrees? 106.2 DEGREES! I felt like Chekhov when he realized he was on the Botany Bay. (If you are not a Trekkie, just carry on smartly and don't worry about the reference) I quickly gave him his medicine and gave him ice packs for his neck, armpits and groin. I stayed up with him until he fell asleep and checked him after 40 minutes to make sure that he was cooling off before I went back to bed.

So, here we are at home again, waiting for the fever to break. He has a follow-up appointment at 2:30 pm with Dr. Gilley, so we'll see what she says. Hopefully she will reconfirm her original diagnosis of a viral infection and we won't need any additional tests that require needles. Nathan starts freaking out at the mention of blood or shots and he gets himself so worked up that he is hard to control when it's time to administer whatever is prescribed.

As a side note, I went outside this morning as I was talking to Mama on the phone and saw how beautiful my bougainvillea was. I bought two hanging baskets when we put the deck cover in and they didn't seem to be doing very well. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong, but I just kept watering them and giving them sun. When I really looked at them today, I realized that every vine was heavy with healthy blooms. I took some pictures of them and included them below.

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UPDATE:

We went to the MD today as planned and she was concerned about the fact that Nathan's fever had not gone away. She ordered more blood work and a chest x-ray and so we went to the hospital to have it taken. Nathan was not entirely thrilled with the radiology department, but I was impressed as our wait from registration to exam completion was only about 30 minutes.

Anyway, Dr. Gilley called me on my cell as we were nearing home and told me that the x-ray was negative for pneumonia, but that she wanted me to go ahead and start Nathan on a heavy-duty antibiotic since the cause of the fever was still unknown. So, we'll wait and see what happens tonight and tomorrow morning. Hopefully the antibiotic will kick in and he will be feeling better in the morning. Either way, I was instructed to call the MD first thing Monday morning to give her an update.