Midnight Scare

This little girl (seen here eating grilled corn-on-the-cob several nights ago) is sick. Was very very sick. Tuesday morning at about 1 am, Madison woke up. Monday afternoon and evening she felt slightly warm to the touch, so I gave her some ibuprofen before bed. She had no other symptoms. When she woke up, she was hot. On fire. Our thermometer battery was dead, so Corey headed to the all-night Walgreens while I gave her some more ibuprofen and started rubbing her with a cool wet washcloth. It took 45 minutes for Corey to return, and when he did I was shocked to see that her temperature was 104.4. It scares me to think what it started out at if it was still that high after the dose of medicine and cold cloth. I took off her diaper and put her in a cool bath, and called her doctor's office. I was told by the person who answered the phone that they could page the on call doctor and she would call me back, but it would cost me $25. Jeez. But whatever, I needed to know if we should take her to the hospital. In 4 children, I have never seen a fever that high and I was terrified. She still had no other symptoms, and was playing happily in the water. In fact she threw a huge fit when I took her out. The doctor called and said to keep up what I was doing, and take her in tomorrow. Anyway, she went back to sleep with the fever only having gone down to 102.5. In the morning, it was only 101.5, and I took her in to see her doctor. They drew blood, and she has a virus (he said that her throat is very red, and he is seeing tons of kids with this virus right now). We had a devil of a time getting her to bed last night, it was nearly 9 pm before she would stay in her crib and go to sleep. This morning her fever was 100.4, and she seems to be feeling somewhat better. I hope she reverts to her usual easy manner at bedtime, because last night I got a taste of what some poor parents go through. Monday she goes back to her doctor for her 18 month check-up. Since we still haven't reached the $3500 out-of-pocket we have to pay before insurance kicks in (I think we are at around $1000), all of this really sucks. But she's ok, and that's what matters.