Friday, March 27, 2009

Fever or not to Fever...that is the question

I have been offline for most of the week because some bug has hit our house. Starting last Saturday, Brayden screamed for three days straight. This is really not his M.O. so I was not quite sure what to do. He had a day with lots of seizures. This could be a tell tale sign of getting sick or growing or tired or who knows what else. I took his temperature several times throughout the three days...no fever. By the third day, Monday, we headed to the pediatrician.

Have you ever taken your child into the doctor and they seem to show no signs of being sick once you are finally in the office? Your child was sick and miserable at home and some how is not once the doctor sees them!

Thankfully that was not the case with Brayden. Oh he screamed in the pediatrician office. Screamed and screamed. So much that two families decided to sit in the hall rather than listen to him in the waiting room (ask me how I felt about their attitude and how it helped my attitude!).

After being examined, the conclusion was that Brayden may have hand, foot and mouth disease because of some sores in his mouth. Not too bad but very contagious. Brayden was extremely miserable so the doctors gave him some Tylenol with Codeine. That helped. It helped a lot.

The following day he was doing much better. But then...

Luke, the middle child, came down with the fever accompanied with some vomiting. Oh fun!

A couple of days later, Carter, the oldest, came down with a fever.

We were back at the pediatricians office today. Luke and Carter have some virus that we need to wait out.

We never get sick and we are not handling it well. Jeremy and I have been under the weather too. I got my first sinus infection that brought on my first case of laryngitis. The last time Carter was sick was a couple of years ago. And I cannot remember for Luke, so it has been a while. Brayden has never actually been sick before. I guess this can be one of his firsts. However with him being sick, it has brought up the question about regulation of his body temperature. He does not show a fever when he is sick? No one has answer to that question.

A fever is never a good thing but as a mom it is a great indicator that your child is ill. You can do things for a fever. A fever is a tell tale sign for a sick child. Once again Brayden leaves us guessing. Fever or not to fever...that is the question.

1 comment:

Shannon said...

I can't believe how healthy your family has been. Wow! I never thought about the impact Brayden's temperature control issues would have on fevers. That must be so difficult to know if he is ill. I hope you are all on the mend and feeling better.