Lowell came home from daycamp yesterday with a pretty high fever, but with no other real symptoms (you know, other than an inability to do anything besides sit on the couch, chug pedialyte, and whine for more Sponge Bob). One of his friends had just come down with the same kind of weird fever the day before so I really was not that concerned. I gave into his whims, fed him soup for dinner, dosed him with Motrin and sent him to bed early. A few hours later I heard him wake up and run into the bathroom and then I heard a panicky whimper for me to come up. I ran upstairs and he was sitting on the bathroom floor completely glassy-eyed and red faced and so hot to the touch that I started running a bath before even reaching for the thermometer. When I took his temperature it was 105+ which, um, yeah, HIGH. His hands and feet were slightly swollen and he was red all over and obviously distressed and confused by it all. This is where I should mention that Matthew was in the city and I was home alone. Unsweet!
Everything turned out fine. His fever dropped right away after the bath and his pediatrician said to just keep an eye on him and bring him in the next day. Since he had no other pain or symptoms at all I really never felt any panic. It was just a spike, a scary spike, but nothing more. By the time I checked on him before getting in bed he was completely cool and normal feeling. Thinking about it today though, I am surprised that I wasn't more freaked out. It always surprises me when I react calmly in a stressful situation. It's one thing to just be calm for the kids while you're freaking the fuck out on the inside but this time I honestly never got there. And lord knows I can get there. Why, I feel panicky all the time! But when I look at the pattern of my anxiety it almost always strikes when everything is fine. I know what this is about (blah, blah, blah, therapy-talk, hi, I've been in therapy) and yet I still have trouble not feeling the creep of panic when all systems are go. For instance for months now I have been (silently, secretly) afraid that something was physically wrong with Lowell (based on NOTHING at all in reality) and feeling all manner of anxiety over it and suddenly he gets a 105 fever and I'm all, hey, no problem! I wish I could channel real-crisis-me when when fake-crisis-me starts getting my google on late at night, right before bed. Actually, I could do that, that's what I have been taught to do, but it's hard. Yep, being mentally healthy is hard.
Gah. Two heavy posts in a row! This always happens when I start forcing myself to post. Okay, gratuitous cute picture! I should just carry this picture around in a little glass case marked "Break In Case Of The Howling Fantods1"
1 Infinite Jest reference right there. More on how that's going later.
Aw, Loweilla are cute!
Really? A bath for a fever? I've never tried that. How cool is the water?
Posted by: Orange | July 17, 2009 at 01:51 PM
It should be tepid - like body temperature and err on the warmer side than the cooler. Too cool can shock the system and cause a febrile seizure, especially with babies and toddlers.
Posted by: LetterB | July 17, 2009 at 04:40 PM
sounds like we have similar problems with free floating anxiety. i work on it but it suckkks. glad he's ok.
Posted by: maggie may | July 20, 2009 at 03:17 AM
I read somewhere recently that when you worry, you're just wasting time imagining a future that doesn't really exist. That sounds a little pedantic, but it's actually been very useful for me.
Posted by: Deanna | July 21, 2009 at 03:00 PM
We are so sisters. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Back when I had MS (shortly after I recovered from Toxoplasmosis) my doctor told me stay off of the internet...
Posted by: kara | August 17, 2009 at 09:19 PM