It’s certainly not the first time Sophie’s been sick. But this was strange. She woke up this morning in a lovely mood, excited to go to her babysitter’s apartment and see her little friends. She ate a big breakfast and happily ran around the house.
About 1/2 hour after I arrived at my office, my cell phone rang. Generally it’s not particularly good news when my cell phone rings. I was in a meeting, however, and was unable to pick up the call. Then the office phone rang – it was my babysitter, concerned because after seeming fine, Sophie crawled into a play tunnel and started trembling. She was running a fever of 101.6 F. I packed up my things to leave and take her to the doctor, and while in the car about 20 minutes later, our babysitter called again. Fever up to 104.5 F. Not good.
I couldn’t take her to our regular pediatrician, who was out today and whose office is about 25 minutes from our house. And her back-up was just as far away. So we went to the local immedicare center – where the first nurse’s aide tried to take her temperature under the arm. That obviously didn’t work – does armpit temperature-taking ever work? What doctor even does that? I was starting to worry – thinking that maybe I should have taken her to the emergency room. Finally, another nurse came in with a rectal thermometer. Which would have been fine, except it was an old-fashioned mercury thermometer – the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was a kid. It took forever to get a reading, and after what seemed like days, and lots of Sophie tears, it came out at 102.2 F.
The doctor took a throat culture, and we’ll know tomorrow if it’s strep. In the meantime, Sophie has started antibiotics (getting her to swallow it was another adventure), and spent most of the day sleeping. She seemed a little better this evening, and ate a bit and drank a lot, too.
The only good thing about kids being sick is that they’re generally more willing than usual to be cuddled and hugged. Sophie slept on me for almost an hour this afternoon. A lovely, but fortunately rare occurrence. I hope it’s the last time that happens for a while.