Thankfully, during Bowdre's 1st year, she hasn't been sick, really ever. She had the one trip to the hospital, but that was technically caused by an outside factor (pollen), so I don't really count that in the "sick" experiences, moreso the "panic" ones. She has never had a fever, and has really only had random congestion/coughs due to teething.
One morning a few weeks back, Bowdre and I were enjoying our time together. It was a Thursday, so there wasn't anything to rush to since I don't work on Thursdays. Bowdre got up acting totally normal. She ate her normal breakfast: scrambled eggs (lots of them), oatmeal and some fruit. She seemed fine. After breakfast, we headed into the den to watch some cartoons and play before we got dressed for the day. Here are a few pictures of Bowdre that morning.
Looks pretty happy to me! Well...about 20 minutes later, I picked Bowdre up to go get dressed, and she was piping hot. I immediately panicked. I took her temperature and it was 103. I called the doctor's office as quickly as I could and asked what to do. They told me to bring her in and they would check her out. Literally, within 5 minutes I was out the door headed to Sylvania to pick Warren up. We rushed to Savannah. Warren and I were so worried. How could our healthy happy baby have a 103 degree fever that was steadily climbing. I think I cried the whole way.
Once in Savannah, they pricked her finger and sure enough her white blood cell count was pretty high (probably due to the high fever). From a glance, Bowdre didn't have any other symptoms. She was eating fine, drinking fine, and outside of being a bit more cranky than normal, they couldn't find a problem. They decided that it was best to take her home, make sure she was getting plenty of fluids, use elderberry and garlic drops, and come back again the next afternoon. It was a hard experience not knowing exactly what was going on, but Warren kept reassuring me that with Bowdre being in school now, this was bound to happen. Matter of fact the doctor said, "You are so blessed that this is your first experience with this. Most babies get sick way before they turn a year old." Well...that didn't help me any because my baby was sick NOW!!!!!!!!!!! After a lot and I mean A LOT of reassuring words, we headed home.
Bowdre was so sweet and cuddly the rest of the afternoon. She is pretty much always a sweet baby, but the cuddly part doesn't happen until she is ready for bed. She is WAYYYY to busy to be cuddly. However, this mama decided to make the most of the cuddliness and snuggled all day. Here is a picture of her later on that evening...seeming to feel a lot better!
The next day, we headed back to the doctor. Her white blood cell count was still high and so was her fever. That doctor's appointment was the worst one yet. Not only did she have a high fever and wasn't feeling well, they had to prick her finger twice, and also had to cath her to check for a UTI. AWFUL. Poor baby, but I have to say, thank the Good Lord for my hubby, who stayed in there with her while I sobbed in the hallway.
No UTI...no other symptoms except for this fever and high white blood count. They decided since it was a Friday afternoon to go ahead and give her an antibiotic shot. After the shot, we headed out and decided to keep with our original plan to go to Hilton Head for the weekend. By the time we left the doctor's office, Bowdre's fever had gone away completely.
Once Saturday morning rolled around, we could tell Bowdre was getting back to her old self. No more fever.
We still don't know exactly what type of infection she had, but we assume it was some sort of either bacterial or viral infection and the shot they gave her definitely helped.
All I have to say is how hard it is dealing with your baby being sick. I am so blessed that Bowdre is a happy and healthy baby most of the time. The doctor (and others) were right. I hate that Bowdre was sick at all, but I am so thankful that she never got this sick during her first year...that would have really been scary.
We are still dealing with the cough, snots, and general crud that I assume comes from daycare, but Bowdre doesn't seem to mind it one bit.
