Fall Fever

When I put it that way it sounds like a super cool trend. What I'm really talking about is an actual fever. My wild thing had his sixth monthday yesterday. Yay! He also had his first fever. I wanted to panic and dope him up as soon as I took his temperature. I had to talk myself down from the ledge. Fevers, in the normal range, are no big deal, right? All people get them. There's no need to panic, right? Tell that to a mommy who's had a child with cancer. Every fever is cause for concern.

Now, after losing a child to illness, I'm a freak when it comes to health. Any "little" thing could turn into my worst nightmare. I remember talking to the urgent care doctor one night when Jason had been vomiting and spiked a fever. He rattled off a list if things it could be. He mentioned meningitis, which terrified me since I had been very ill with it (twice) as an infant. All were relatively benign compared to the diagnosis we got a few weeks later. It was a brain tumor, a serious business one. It was just a fever, right? To me, it's never just a fever.

Nevertheless, I talked myself down from the ledge of immediately resorting to meds. A fever is just your body's way of fighting off illness and should (within reason) be allowed to run it's course. (Am I letting my crunchiness show?) We started sponging him with tepid water and nursing as much as possible. It seemed to be working when, several hours in, we checked his temp and it was 102.4. Creeping toward 103 was my cut-off. We gave him acetaminophen.

Throughout the night it stayed highish, but had broken by 8:00 the next morning. I thought all was good, aside from him being a little sleepy. Then I got out of my massage and my wild thing wouldn't look at me or really focus on anything. I had a moment of panic where I thought, "OMG! Did the f***in' fever impact his vision?" I was scared. It took a little bit of trickery on my part, but he finally looked at me and smiled. He was just mad at me for leaving him alone with my hubs for a bit. Little boogie!

It's laugh-worthy now. It wasn't at the time. It makes me think of when my cowboy had his first surgery, I think. He was in ICU and the doctors are crowded around asking a hundred questions. He, all of a sudden, yells, "I can't see." They, of course, freak out and start examining him, since he did just have brain surgery. He was talking about the tv. The plethora of doctors were blocking his view. Sheesh! Kids!