Only a mother will truly understand this entry, or perhaps a father that completely takes care of a sick child (I currently have only met maybe one or two of those in my life, by the way!).
A child with a fever is a life stopping event. Yes, it sounds tragic, but it’s true isn’t it? If you have a child with a cold, allergies or the basic “thing” you can deal with it and you can pretty much keep your daily life in tact, but a fever, well that just changes everything. Why you non-child having people might ask? Well it’s simple - a fever means that there is infection and if you don’t know what it is and if the Dr. office is already closed for the day you are trapped. Then you must treat the fever every 4 hours switching between Motrin and Tylenol and the party begins.
During the peak of the fever the child will do any of the following: throw up, cry, become lifeless to the point of you panicking, act as if he/she is from another planet talking and carrying on in “fever language” or a mixture of all of the above! Now then, you administer the medicine (some children take it calmly while some have to be held down like the Exorcist!) and then as the fever medicine begins to seep through their body they begin to become somewhat normal again, but here is the kicker; you are looking at 3-4 hours of normalcy before the craziness starts up all over again and if you find the the infection is virile this is the only treatment you will do until this illness passes.
I know this, as we have had a virile infection since New Year’s Eve. No treatment is available except fever medicine and you must wait for the infection to leave the body. This leaves you and the child sleepless, and wondering is this will EVER pass. A child with a fever literally stops your life. I looked at the calendar today and couldn’t believe it was 1/4/09 already. How could we have already jumped so far into the new year? Life has passed us by so quickly because of this sickness. It blew me away.
Mother’s do a lot for a child and sometimes I wonder if we really give them the credit they deserve! No, I’m not writing this to get the “atta girl”, as most that read this are mothers! I guess I’m writing it to say to them - I know its hard being a mom, working 8 hours, taking care of a house, cooking, cleaning, laundry, getting people where they need to go and then you throw in a sick child and things just go a little crazy. You wonder the next day, “How did I get through that day with 3 hours sleep?” ha ha. I am TRULY BLESSED, as I have a mom and a family that help out so much. They are there for me and that means the world to me. I depend on them and for that I am thankful.
We are better today, finally and we did go the Immediate Care Center early this morning as after 4 days with 103 fever, we were finally scared to death. As we thought - virile so we are waiting it out! Another night and hopefully we can start our New Year out the right way!