Sick and Tired

We are still behind on the posts – but this particular entry is all about the here and now.  Don’t worry – we’ll catch you up on all of the folks that have visited us the last couple of weeks (and all the fun we had!) – and Mike’s first trip to the _______.

But today was not about fun and games.  We had noticed that Mike was crankier than normal last night.  We weren’t concerned at all.  Mike had a very busy weekend and his schedule was all out of whack.  This morning he was still very sleepy, but we took him to daycare and thought that everything would be back to normal once he rested up.

But at 3:00 this afternoon we got a call from daycare telling us that Mike had a fever.  We picked him up and sure enough, his face was flushed, he was warm to the touch, and he was REALLY cranky!  Our unofficial parental diagnosis was that Mike was “sick and tired” – literally.  We drove to the pediatrician and if they would have poked and prodded and pricked me as much as they did Mike, I would be cranky too!

They started with the usual battery of “why are you here” questions.  Then we moved out to the scale (he’s up to 12 pounds and 3 ounces!) and the ear thermometer read 101.3 degrees.  We went back to the room to wait for the doctor when the nurse (her name was “Starla”) came back in – the doctor wanted to confirm his temperature with the rectal thermometer.  Starla lubed up the thermometer and took the reading.  Mike patiently waited with a “shouldn’t we have dinner first?” look on his flushed face.  Low and behold, the temperature came back at 101.3 degrees.

The doctor came in and did the whole physical exam - listen to the lungs, look up the nose, look in the ears, look down the throat (wow those tongue depressors look big in his mouth!).  We were scheduled for the 4 month exam this Friday, and the doctor decided “We should go ahead and do the ‘CBC’ today”.  What is a “CBC” you ask?  It’s a Complete Blood Count – but it certainly sounds cooler to say that you had a “CBC” done.

The pricked his finger and BOY he did NOT like that!  Then the nurse had to squeeze his finger until the little vial was filled up.  Then it was off to the lab to conduct the CBC.

About 5 minutes later, the doctor came back in.  Mike’s CBC showed an elevated WBC – I think I’m diggin’ this doctor talk.  The “WBC” – or White Blood cell Count” – should be between roughly 5,000 and 11,000.  Mikes was 22,000.  A temperature and an elevated white blood cell count – the conclusion was that Mike was sick.

The doctor decided to do a chest X-ray.  He’s had a stuffy nose for a little while now, and even though she didn’t hear any congestion in his chest, she wanted to confirm that his lungs were clear and rule out pneumonia.  And while we are at it – let’s stick these swabs up his nose so we can test for the flu and RSV.

The chest X-ray came back clear, and both the swabs came back negative.  The doctor decided on an antibiotic shot in the leg and told us to start him on some Tylenol.

So, the short version is, Mike had a fever and the doctor stuck a thermometer in his ear, a thermometer up his butt, stuck a cold stethoscope all over his chest and back, pricked his finger and drew blood, wooden sticks down his throat, swabs up his nose, doused him in X-ray’s, and gave him a shot in the leg.  And the end result?  Take some Tylenol and we’ll see you tomorrow.  How cliché! 

So – we have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon…