Sick Days

Edith is generally a very healthy kid. But last week, she showed us a completely different side of herself. She had been teething, and so we attributed her sleeplessness to that. We dropped her off at daycare, expecting that she would tire herself out playing with friends and we might get the benefit of her exhaustion later on. Instead, we got a phone call from the day care "principal" an hour later saying that her temp was 101 under-the-arm. When we brought her home and checked the rectal temp ("This hurts me more than it hurts you, kid...") it was 104. So we immediately called the pediatrician. The nurse who answered the phone seemed entirely unimpressed, but made an appointment for her. Now I don't get sick a lot either, but I NEVER remember having a 104 temp. At any rate, the nurse was proved right. With a dose of Tylenol, her temp was down to 99 two hours later when we got to the doctor. He called it a virus that would take about 5 days to disappear (right on the money). The only other thing he could see wrong was a slight ear infection.

There's lots I could say about the parental learning curve this week, but I think I can distill it into a few nuggets of wisdom:

1. If you're going to bring a sick kid into bed with you to comfort them, invest in a rubber sheet first. Vomit can soak into a mattress very quickly.

2. Don't assume that a virus is not strong, just because it's using a cute, cuddly infant as a host. Edith was the Trojan Horse in this case. I got nailed with tonsilitis from this one. And my medicine was a lot more expensive than hers.

3. Kids can be extremely innovative at avoiding their medicine. Did you ever see bull-riding at the rodeo? Well, imagine trying to put a syringe of fluid into the mouth of the bull. Then imagine cleaning bright pink amoxycillin off the bull and the rider and the show-ring.

4. Taking care of a baby when YOU'RE sick is much more taxing than taking care of a sick baby. In the latter case, your heart wants to break. In the former, it's the rest of you that wants to break.





Sick dad, recovered baby