Hospital Hound

We're in the hospital because The Boy had a fever last night that showed up gradually over the course of the day. Musical Daddy is glad that I'm able to tell by touch whether The Boy "feels warm" or not. I wasn't able to do that before. And some of the little pediatric hospital gowns have a picture of "Hospital Hound" on them, which is immensely cute.

During the day it was a high temperature but still within the normal range, sort of, in the afternoon it was a little higher, dinnertime it was about 99.1 axillary which, adding a degree because the axillary temperature (underarm) is a degree lower than what the temp would be with the thermometer inserted elsewhere, is about 100.1, and then after 8:00 it was 100.3 axillary.

I didn't rush, necessarily, although I started packing stuff as soon as I had put in the call to the treatment center. I figured that we may as well pack up our stuff right then rather than make a second trip (which Musical Daddy ended up doing anyway, as he left his chorus rehearsal before we had even left the house).

I may have seen this coming although it did seem pretty sudden. One sign: The Boy did a LOT of sleeping today. I wrote that off because he had also had a CT scan done under anesthesia, and I remember the last time Musical Daddy had had surgery he was groggy and sleeping extra for days, so I have that in the back of my mind every time The Boy needs to be sedated (which seems to be pretty often, unfortunately, and will be so until he is old enough to lie still for CT Scans).

He didn't eat much yesterday, although I guess I attributed that to a combination of anesthesia and a holdover from last week's illness. That said, he did seem fine on Monday, as I mentioned.

After I placed the call and started packing up, I knew that something was wrong. I put The Boy on our bed to hang out and he was just...lying there. He wasn't asleep. He seemed tired, which would cause him to be less active, but he was just so complacent. That's the word for it, and it's an odd mannerism coming from this child who is SO opinionated. He didn't complain about the fact that I'd walk in and out of the room or that I didn't stop to play with him. He didn't get up and crawl around on the bed. He didn't even play with the TiVo remote that I had left on the bed. He just lay there for a good 20 minutes doing nothing.

I got a major headache last night and I was kicking myself for not just taking a Tylenol before we left the house. Fortunately I did get some Tylenol and it made me feel better, allowing me to get some sleep. A nice...4 hours or so. Now I'm awake and, fortunately, the headache is gone for now. I'm speculating that it was something I ate. Didn't particularly want to cook anything elaborate because I didn't want to overfill the fridge, so I made rice noodles for The Boy and me and ate some gefilte fish to get some protein. The Boy had leftovers from lunch that he didn't eat--a chicken and veggie dish that I had made en masse on Sunday night.

I'll echo Musical Daddy's sentiment--anyone want to bring us some dinner? It's Yom Kippur starting tonight and I'd love a good pre-fast meal (even though I'm not strictly fasting because I'm "still" breastfeeding The Boy).

Yom Kippur. Ah yes. One of the few Jewish holidays that doesn't fall under the umbrella of "They tried to kill us; we won; let's eat." Because first of all, you don't eat. And secondly, this is, instead, one of the holidays that stems from obligation. Sukkot, the feast of the harvest, starts next week and it also does not fall under that umbrella.

It's the Day of Atonement. And the last thing that I want to do is sit around bellyaching about how miserable my life is just because my kid is sick. Because really, life isn't too bad overall especially considering how much support we get from family and friends even when things are "normal." Furthermore, the fact that my kid is sick doesn't give me license to be a jerk, a slacker, or a whiner. I am hoping that I have been none of these things and have tried to make things right in situations where I feel that I may have wronged someone. Since the deadline is tomorrow, if I have wronged you, please forgive me.

The Boy is still sleeping, and good thing because he needs it, and I think I'm going to tap into my reserve of snacks. Or maybe take a shower...