“105º and Still Cooking...”

Last night we took Jacob’s tem.perature around 9:30pm and got a reading of 104.4, 104.5 and 104.9 (we obviously kept checking hoping it was a thermometer error). We just use an ear thermometer, so I told Aaron to go get the digital one for a more precise tem.perature to ensure the accuracy of the reading. Meanwhile, I kept checking the thermometer on myself and getting normal readings of 98. In addition, Jacob was burning up and listless, so we figured it was probably pretty accurate. Aaron found the digital thermometer, but the battery was dead, he tried to replace it and said “screw this, get in the car”. So we rushed Jacob to the ER and got him into triage immediately. They took his tem.p the "hosptial way" and the triage nurse announced his tem.p was “105 and still cooking”. The tem.p peaked at 105.2 and they took us right to a room. The hospital was pretty prompt and attentive to us, but unfortunately we had to do lots of waiting for observation and blood tests, so it was a long night. The doctor was concerned about meningitis and suggested we do a spinal tap if Jacob shows no sign of improvement. Luckily, after four hours and some big doses of medicine, Jacob did show signs of improvement and was alert enough to indicate he was ready to leave (by repeatedly pointing to the door). His fever came down slowly, it took about 2hrs to get down to 104, then it dropped like crazy down to 99. Jacob’s white blood cells came back elevated (I think he said 72,000? - which means nothing to me... Julie, any insight?), but he said that is expected given everything. Luckily though, he was staying well hydrated and his electrolytes were normal, which meant NO iv, thank goodness. The doctor gave Jacob a shot of antibiotics to really kick start things and sent us home with a much cooler baby. If he becomes listless and inconsolable again though, we are supposed to return so that they can further explore the meningitis possibility. Thankfully, so far today, Jacob is doing great and is even back to assaulting the dog! What a terrible experience though. I feel awful enough that Jacob doesn’t feel good and then we put him through two doctors offices and then a trip to the ER. He was poked, prodded and had his tem.perature taken WAY too much. Jacob hates everything about the hospital. From the stupid hospital bracelet he couldn’t get off his foot to the little clip on his toe monitoring his pulse. It was so hard to watch him so uncomfortable, not just from his illness, but his surroundings and everything they were doing to him. We didn’t get home until 3am and I went to work at 8am this morning and I am just physically and emotionally drained. I’m just so glad its over and hopefully it is over for good and Jacob is on the upward spin of things. We have a follow up appointment with our regular pediatrician, but we are having problems scheduling since the doc wants it to be 48hrs after his visit and we are scheduled to go to GR, so we are still waiting on a call to see when they can fit us in. They should have some more bloodwork results back then - something to do with a culture that takes several hours. So, we’ll keep you posted! Pray for a speedy recovery and NO more trips to the ER!