When we got home late Sunday night, Rob went immediately up to bed and I nursed H again. As I was getting ready to swaddle him, I noticed he still felt really hot, even after the cool car ride and coming home to our cool house. I decided I should take him temperature to be safe, and sure enough it was 101.5. Well, of course I bounded up the stairs to wake up Rob and call the nurse on call (and consult twitter of course) and she said to call her if after a cool bath and Tylenol his fever went up. Well, we bathed his head in cool water, and gave him some Tylenol and his fever went down. So he went between Rob and I and we all fell asleep. When the alarm went off for our next dose of Tylenol, I noticed that H felt even hotter. Sure enough, he fever was now up to 102.5. Another call to the nurse and she informed us that we needed to go to the hospital. So off we went.
We drove down to Scottish Rite, about 35 minutes away. They took a urine sample by catheter and some blood and mama almost had a melt-down. So did baby! All came back negative, so it was decided that he must have a virus. We were told to push fluids, make sure he kept having wet diapers and to give him Tylenol every 4 hours. Well, poor H was so unhappy and fussy all the rest of Sunday! He barely slept at all! Finally, Monday morning, mama made a discovery. She FINALLY (to be fair, mama was severely sleep-deprived at the time) noticed that H would be happy and fine, but that when she tried to make him eat he would suddenly start screaming! So mama looked in his mouth and discovered blisters. A Google search later, and it was determined that he had hand, foot and mouth disease. I called the pediatrician’s office as soon as it opened, and my suspicion was confirmed.
So, now we wait. Apparently HFMD can last up to a week or more. I really hope that it doesn’t. It breaks my heart to see H feeling so unwell! At least I got the ok to make him up some ‘magic mouthwash’ to coat the inside of his mouth with; so far it has dulled the pain enough for him to be willing to nurse with a weak suck immediately following an application. This makes mama’s life a LOT easier and definitely makes mama worry a lot less than when H refused to nurse! Not that I can blame him!
Looking back, I’m not really certain that it was really necessary for us to have to drive H all the way to the ER super-early Sunday morning. When the ER doctor was talking to us, he didn’t even seem concerned about temperature. I really feel like the nurse on call should have told us to wait an hour or so and see if the dose of Tylenol and a cool bath would bring down his temperature. I mean, he had had a fever for less than 7 hours when we were told to go to the ER. This would have saved us a lot of worry, time and gas money and H a lot of pain as he wouldn’t have been subjected to catheterization and having blood drawn. Especially since the Tylenol and cool bath I gave him while waiting for the nurse’s call back *did* bring his temp down; when we arrived at the ER his temp was down to 100. I understand being concerned, but if the Tylenol and the bath do their job, is there really any reason to rush to the hospital?
I’m not quite sure there is. And at the time I kindof thought so too, but if the nurse tells you to go to the ER you (at least I did) feel like you have to or you’re being a bad parent. At any rate, I feel like I learned a lesson: the next time H has a fever, I will definitely give Tylenol & a cold bath to see if that lowers his fever first before calling the nurse for advice.
Oh, yeah. And guess which super-lucky mama caught HFMD from her baby? Yep, it was me. FML
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