Sickness, Sickness Everywhere

I think everyone I know has been sick in the past month. Either I don't know very many people, or there is a lot going around - you be the judge.

Lexi has had a runny nose and chest congestion/cough for a month. During week 3, she also had diarrhea for 5 days. During week 4, everything got better except her congestion, which caused her to cough a lot in the mornings. Then this week happened.

On Tuesday night I thought she felt warm. Her temperature registered 100.8, so barely a fever. By Wednesday morning her nose was running again and her temperature was 102.8. Because this fever was following a month of illness, I decided to call the doctor. The nurse thought I should have Lexi seen.

So Wednesday the doctor examined her. By the time we saw him, about noon, her temperature was up to 104.7. Her ears and throat looked great, so he took some blood. Her white blood cell count was 11,000 - slightly above normal. The doctor didn't think it was high enough to indicate a bacterial infection, so he didn't prescribe an antibiotic. NOTE: I am thankful for a doctor who doesn't prescribe antibiotics for every little fever. He told me to give her Motrin for the fever and Delsym for the cough.

Overnight Lexi was fairly restless. I let her sleep with me because every time she woke up she got upset. By 12:45 Thursday morning, I decided she needed more medicine. I asked Elian to go get it, but before he could get out of bed, Lexi yaked (read: vomited) all over me and the carpet. Nice. I changed our clothes, medicated her, and put her back to bed. After a long night, she woke at 6:30 on Thursday morning, asking for Cheeos (read:Cheerios). She sucked down a ton of water, then ate 4 bites of cereal and threw up all over the highchair (which is the ideal place, by the way - easy clean up!).

The rest of the day Lexi just wanted me to hold her. She was lethargic, feverish, and had no appetite. Unless she was in a T.V. trance, she was whining/crying. Her fever was still 104 around dinner time. She slept from 4-7 PM, then woke up happy and fever free. Was this the end?!

No.

Lexi stayed happy until we put her to bed at 10:30. She woke at 11:45 upset, so I put her in bed with me. She was wearing a t-shirt and diaper, and the house was about 66 degrees - not cold, right? She went back to sleep, then woke a couple hours later with her nose clogged. I turned the light on to suction her nose, and she was shivering harder than I've ever seen anyone shiver before. Her hands, feet, and lips were starting to turn blue! I woke Elian up and he thought she was just cold. So we put her in fleece PJs and piled all the covers and the comforter on her. She was happy, asking us to turn on the T.T. (read: T.V.), but she still shivered like a madman for 20 minutes! I took her temperature, and it was normal. Elian looked online and decided this was fairly normal in kids with fevers, but it scared me. She got sleepy again, so I held her, all wrapped up, and then she puked. She finally got back to sleep about 3:30 and woke up soaked in sweat about 7 AM with a normal temperature.

She's eaten well today, and she seems happy, but tired. About 10 AM, her temperature was back up to 102.something - you tend to begin to forget the numbers after the point when you've been taking temperatures for 3 days.

Elian and I are supposed to go to a marriage conference this weekend and leave Lexi with my parents. We'll see what happens.