Viral Illness

I got home Wednesday from work and Mike informed me that Petie had a low grade temperature. We assumed he was teething early because of the mass amounts of drool and finger chewing! When Petie got up from his nap he felt really hot. I took his temperature . . . it was 102! I fed him and took his temp again thinking he was just warm from sleeping . . . it was 101! We called the nurses hotline thinking they would just tell us to give him Tylenol and report to the ER if the temp did not drop (I usually find the nurses line to be less then helpful). They didn't . . . they told us to come in immediately. We went to the Peds . . . I figured they would take our $20 copay and tell us to go home and take Tylenol (it seems every time we go in I feel like I just wasted a $20 copay and they send us home telling us it is "normal"). Dr. Kurtz asked us lots of questions and examined him and gave him a flu test. He came back in and told us the flu test of neg and that we needed to go straight to the Childrens Hospital for more test . . . he said something is really wrong with this little baby . . . he began preparing us for what would happen . . . urine test, blood test, and potentially a spinal tap. Our hearts sank. We knew something was wrong with him . . . but for the first time . . . the Dr. seemed more worried then we did . . . but we got worried fast! At Childrens they drilled us with more questions, examined him, and looked truly bothered my his state of distress. He hadn't stopped crying all day. Sometimes he would stop crying and just moan. They looked for an ear infection (after clearing a ton of wax), checked for constipation (which we told him he is never constipated . . . it doesn't run in the family), and even took a cathetor for a urine sample. Nothing . . . they kept saying that besides his fever and a rash (which Mike I didn't notice at first) he was a very healthy baby. That seemed to bother them even more. Mike and I prepared ourselves for a bacterial infection . . . blood work . . . the dreaded spinal tap. And then . . . remarkably . . . Petie gained control of himself . . . he stopped crying . . . stopped moaning . . . he still looked sick and miserable . . . but he wasn't out of control. Apparently that is what they needed to see to determine that they didn't need to do any more test. They determined he had a viral illness (which is apparently going around the community) and they sent us home to take lots of Tylenol . . . the result I suspected from the beginning. Mike and I both stayed home yesterday. It was a good thing . . . it was like having a newborn all over again except this time he weighs 18lbs. We took 2 hour rotations holding him . . . the off person would gain feeling back in their arms, go to the bathroom, get food and zone out before it was their turn again. I think we are both staying home again today. We have a follow-up appointment with the Dr. where hopefully we can prove that his rash is gone . . . if it isn't then we may be at Childrens all over again. Now I am waiting for P to wake up after a very long night!