Yesterday, I woke up with an upset stomach and headache. Wayne told me he felt the same way on Friday (and was losing his voice yesterday and more today). So, Aubrey also woke up with a headache, I figured she had what we had. I gave her some ibuprofen and forgot about her feeling bad because she acted normal.
Late afternoon she said she was cold. I was out of it, and sent her outside to play to warm up. Duh, Melody, that's not normal on a hot afternoon - it was in the upper 80's yesterday. Then I found her asleep around 4:30. She had been complaining of a headache. I took her temp and it was 104.3. I put her in the bath, gave her another dose of ibuprofen and her temp briefly came back to normal. Then it ranged from 100.5-103.
I googled her symptoms (WHY DO I DO THIS!?!) and panicked when all I read was that fever + headache = meningitis. (She, of course, complained of neck pain soon after - one of the hallmark signs or something). Of course, someone I work with has been out on and off this year, most recently in the last 2 weeks, because of aseptic meningitis. I told Wayne that I didn't want to panic...but I was panicking and asked him to help me decide if I'm overreacting or if I should take her in. He came to look at her with me.
After a call to the nurse on call who suggested checking a few things that seemed to confirm my fears- Aubrey was difficult to wake up and said that it hurt to move her neck, and it appeared stiff - then the nurse said we should take her to the ER.
So, I took her. They did a strep test (which the PA suspected because of her red throat and swollen lymph nodes) came back negative. They said it doesn't appear to be meningitis. For both of those, they said it might be too early to tell but is likely just some other virus. When the doctor came in, he was a little pompous, so I chuckled inside when he appeared to stress out when she threw up (for the only time) while he was in the room. He immediately ordered Zofran for her nausea which seemed a bit of an overreaction. Not that I'm one to talk here. ;)
I was so relieved. I felt badly for taking her in for "nothing" and mostly because I expect the bill to be ridiculous. But, when she woke up numerous times in the night feverish, crying, sometimes making no sense, and complaining of a headache, each time I could reassure myself that it was okay.
I was so relieved. I felt badly for taking her in for "nothing" and mostly because I expect the bill to be ridiculous. But, when she woke up numerous times in the night feverish, crying, sometimes making no sense, and complaining of a headache, each time I could reassure myself that it was okay.
While we were there, of course because of her fever, at least 4 people asked me whether we had been out of the country. Um, no. No Ebola here!
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| Waiting on the strep test in the ER. |
She still has a headache, a fever, says her throat hurts, is fatigued, and her stomach hurts too. But she is much more herself today.
