103F Overnight

How many posts start with that title?

Sam was feverish on Monday, so I kept meds in him all day yesterday, until afternoon. Then he seemed fine. We walked down to the mailboxes (a fair way for him to walk) and he was skipping and running all the way down there.

When I put him to bed, he did not have a fever.

At about 1:45am, he woke up and called for me a couple times. When I got into his room, he was standing at the edge of his pack-n-play reaching out for me. I picked him up and he was on fire. So, I took him upstairs and learned his temp was 103F. He was acting very lethargic and I was really concerned that if I riled him up too much his heart would beat too fast and cause him to be shocked (my thinking was that his heart must already be beating very quickly).

But, no shock. I prayed over him. I took his clothes off, gave him meds, took him outside, wet his hair down, told Bill what was going on...all the while, no shock.

We played with some water (to cool him off), bubbles and finally turned on a Blue's Clues episode (his favorite). I even checked his heart with our cheapo stethoscope. It was only beating 123bpm by my untrained ear. Bill and I sat in the living room while Sam laid on my chest and watched his TV show. Half an hour after the meds, I took his temp again and it was 101.1. Praise God.

I put him back to bed and Bill set my alarm for the next Tylenol dosage (at 5:45am). I won't go into all the details of the rest of the night, but needless to say neither Bill nor I slept. Poor Bill had to go to work today. I don't know how he will make it.

I spoke with Sam's cardiologist in Chapel Hill this morning, Dr. Buck. He said he was REALLY encouraged to know that having a fever doesn't always bring on VTAC, as it has in the past. Sam has shown himself to not have VTAC with high fever on several occasions now. Dr. Buck was very happy. I wanted to make sure that I made the right decision in not taking Sam to the hospital too. Normally we would take him if his fever got to 102F. But, Dr. Buck supported my decision. We also checked Sam's defib and there have been no events at all.

So, we see Dr. Buck again next Thursday for our normal appointment in Greensboro. And, we will see a pediatrician this morning to figure out, yet again, that Sam probably has a virus. No symptoms, but a slightly runny nose.

I'm looking forward to the day that Sam can talk to me and tell me what's happening in his body.