So last night we went for pizza in Zumbrota. We were waiting for our pizza to get done, the kids were being pretty good and Livi was sitting nicely in her high chair. Then at about 6:30 she all of a sudden looked like she was going to fall asleep or maybe get sick. Gregg and I both stared at her for a bit, felt her head and asked her if she was okay. At that point the only thing that seemed wrong was a snotty nose and the fact that she may fall asleep at the table! She felt slightly warm but since it was pushing 90 outside, we all felt warm!
As we were packing the kids up she seemed to be getting warmer, so Gregg dropped me off to get some baby Tylenol since we weren't sure if we had it at home. When I got back into the car Gregg said she coughed something fierce and threw up a little. Cleaning her up quick with some baby wipes we headed home and got her some Tylenol. Tried to give the kids a quick bath and got the boys off to bed. Gregg was holding Livi and she seemed to be breathing heavy. I took her and said she was burning up. Gregg took her temp under arm and it was 103.3.
My kiddos don't get fevers often at all. Since I work for Mayo Clinic, I resort to calling the Employee nurse line. After a load of questions, the nurse decided she should be seen in the next hour since she had a cough with the fever and heavy/fast breathing.
Of course at 9pm during my half hour drive to the ER I trying calling every mom friend I know, especially the ones who have fever prone kids! And of course...no one is home or answering. After all, it is Friday night! As I'm almost to the hospital, Megan calls me back. At first, she tells me not to panic to much about 103.3. But a few more sentences into the conversation she discovers that was under arm temp and Livi has a cough. Sometimes I think Meg was a pediatrician in a past life, cause she immediatley says, "She probably has pneumonia!" I start thinking we won't be leaving the hospital tonight cause every kid I know that has had pneumonia as been admitted, I was thinking that my kids don't have any breathing issues otherwise, so that wouldn't be the case here!
Anyway, Meg graciously comes and sits with us for 3 hours in the ER to find out that she was right, Livi has pneumonia and with the economy the way it is, there is no longer a 24 hour pharmacy so we would have to wait until morning for antibiotics. Luckily, after being in the ER for an hour or so, the resident ordered Motrin and by the time we left Livi was a different girl.
We are still laughing about the resident. Megan and I (and Livi for the matter) weren't too sure about him to begin with. He came in and tried to play peek-a-boo with the privacy curtain. Meg said she wished she had taken her phone out for a picture because Livi was making this face at him like she was way to cool to fall for any peek-a-boo trick. He finally gave up and examined her. But as we were getting packed up to leave and she had a good hour of Motrin in her, she actually ran up to him and when he asked for a hug she obliged. (We did give him a break since he said his only daughter was just 8 months!)
Here's to dealing with the crazy fever thing!
