Toddlers on steroids. I highly recommend this. Miserable for children and adults. NON STOP crying. So fun. Just how you always wanted to spend your Thanksgiving week.
Almost two weeks ago Baby Girl started feeling a little under the weather. A little warm, a little cough, a runny nose. Off and on for about a week. Then last Sunday as Sissy curled our hair and we all got ready to go to our Family Christmas Pictures appointment Baby Girl started acting a little cranky. In the truck she was whiny and fussy. Now that’s pretty normal for her – she hates to be in the car seat. But once we get to the location Baby Girl refuses to participate. No smiles, no being still and sweet. No playing with the photographer or laughing with Sissy or Daddy. Aggravating of course, but we got through it.
So then we decided to go to dinner. We get to Olive Garden and Baby Girl does not want to eat. I notice her cheeks are red. The wind, Daddy and Sissy say. I say that’s not normal. As always, Mama knows. Pretty soon Baby Girl is curled up in my lap on the booth seat, not eating and not misbehaving. She falls asleep on the way home. Now I’m getting pretty worried. All of this is VERY unlike her. She’s usually grabbing at food and trying to crawl across the table, or eating the sugar directly out of the packets while I try in vain to actually enjoy what I’m eating.
Next morning I take Baby Girl to her regular doctor – we think she has flu they say. But they can’t do the test for it because they don’t have any. So no definitive diagnosis. Spend a miserable afternoon and evening at home. Little did I realize that things were about to go seriously down hill. Next morning Baby Girl still has a fever. Later that afternoon we do some finger painting which she really enjoys. Then she wants to watch “Mouse” – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is her favorite thing. At least it’s not Wonder Pets or Dora the Explorer. Although the whole Toodles thing just makes me crazy – how the hell does he hide all the tools and where do they go when they are done with them?!
Anyway, after a little while I come to check on her and she is lying on the floor whimpering and covered in goosebumps and she is BURNING UP. Temperature is 102.6! MAMA FREAKS OUT! Baby Girl has spent relatively little time being sick in her whole two and a half years. She wasn’t sick at all her whole first year. So this is a whole new battleground for which I am woefully unprepared. Call her doctor – doctor says take her to hospital. Now, Daddy is currently in Sherman visiting his Dad, who is also in the hospital. I call him up and tell him to get his a$$ back to Pilot Point.
Once I get her to the hospital she is laying limp in my arms, burning up and whimpering. Of course I have to freak my mom and dad out too so they can share in the worry and stress. They get us back to a Fast Track room (where I later learn is where they take you when they think you aren’t really an emergency and therefore you get a cubicle instead of a room and you get charged less AND you get an NP – not a fully fledged MD). At some lengthy point later they actually do a flu test and it comes back negative. Of course. So then they decide to x-ray her lungs because she is breathing a little weirdly. Or snoring like a freight train through a cold winter night, as I point out.
After about a hundred hours of waiting we finally get the x-ray. Then wait another twelve hours for the results which show Acute Bronchitis. I said “how bad is it?” Wise Guy NP says “bad enough to bring her to the hospital.” Huh. HE says her throat is fine, her ears are fine, her nose is fine. I’m a little skeptical but with the diagnosis I feel a little better. He prescribes antibiotics and steroids to help with the breathing and we go home.
He says wait til tomorrow morning to give her the steroid because it’ll keep her awake. Thanks for the tip, Doc. Baby Girl and I spend a miserable night with her not breathing well, therefore not sleeping well and myself being totally stressed out and exhausted. That was Tuesday and Tuesday night. I think. I’ve lost all track of the days. This morning my husband asked me what time my first lesson is and I was like “what lessons?” Totally forgot it’s Saturday. Anyway, on Wednesday we give her the steroid. Now, she’s not eating anything at all so she’s hungry but I’m guessing her throat is hurting too bad to eat. Hungry equals cranky. Tired equals crankier. Fever equals Hang On to Mama and Don’t Let Go Even if She has to Pee.
Wednesday afternoon she falls asleep finally about 2:00 after being awake as per the doctor’s prediction. She’s still asleep at 5:00. Daddy says you better wake her up because if you don’t she will never sleep tonight. I’m gonna tell you right now mamas… NEVER LISTEN TO DADDY. I wake her up and she proceeds to cry for THREE HOURS. It was finally my own mom who pointed out that it was probably the steroid causing the tears and the misery. Trying to put her back to bed on Wednesday night I tell my husband I’m going to throw Baby Girl out the window. He takes pity on me and actually comes in to lay down with her. As he should since it was HIS FAULT she’s crying and screaming MILK! MILK! over and over and over and over.
Thursday morning I get to sleep in. After listening to Baby Girl cry (read: Freak the F&*K out) when Daddy went in to get her instead of me, she finally calms down and I go back to sleep. At 8:30 my husband wakes me up and says “Baby Girl isn’t feeling well.” Really? Well this is new news. It’s Thanksgiving morning. But unfortunately he’s serious. Temperature reads 105, 106 and 107. Stupid thermometer is clearly not working right. But she’s obviously burning up and whimpering again so…. back to the ER we go.
THIS time we are “upgraded” to private room, an MD and an even longer wait while they decide A) what is really going on and B) what new charges they can come up with. Pus all in the back of her throat. Tonsils wickedly swollen, lymph nodes swollen. Strep test is negative. MONO test is positive. How the hell does a toddler get mono?! So of course I google it. WebMD and all the other helpful sites say that if a young child gets mono, the symptoms are usually so light that most of the time you don’t even know they have it. Uh huh. Interesting. What a bunch of baloney. Baby Girl is sick enough to be in the ER on Thanksgiving Day. I don’t think that qualifies as “lightly symptomatic.”
So eventually (like 3 pm) we get to go home once again. My mom and dad have come anyway bearing turkey and all the fixings. They are at the house waiting for us, bless their hearts. My mom and I spend the late afternoon wondering why the thing on the turkey won’t pop up. My husband and my dad spend the afternoon fixing a broken water pipe by one of the paddocks. Baby Girl sleeps and is miserable. Turkey dinner at 7 pm! We are thankful for NOT currently being in the ER.
Friday I make the mistake of giving her the steroid again – she falls asleep twice on her own – once on the living room floor and once on the floor in her own room. This time I do not wake her up but as soon as she does wake up it’s NON STOP CRYING all over again. OH what fun! What joy! My parents take off to go back home. Can’t say that I blame them. Baby Girl spends the whole day crying, whining and clinging to me. But finally the day is over and steroid has worn off and the rest of the bottle is now in the trash can.
This morning Baby Girl has finally woken up without a fever. She is smiling and eating a cookie. She is playing. I realize she may have re-lapses over the next few weeks before she gets over this entirely but for now I am grateful for the respite.
We are thankful.
