Sick Chloe

Our Christmas plans would not be complete without a kink! On Wednesday afternoon I heard Chloe tell Emmi that she didn't want anymore of the popcorn. Now, this was no ordinary popcorn. This was popcorn from the new gourmet popcorn shop in Belmont (i'll save my review of that place for another time), the place they had been DIEING to visit. So, when I heard her say she didn't want anymore, it caught my attention, that was VERY strange for Chloe. We ran a few more errands, and upon arriving at home Chloe said she had a headache. I needed no more than to touch her forehead to know she was burning up with fever...102.5 to be exact. I immediately gave her some ibuprofen but the fever rose to 103.6 at one point in the evening. We tried the lukewarm bath, but it didn't really make it go down. Knowing the fever regimen, I gave her a tylenol 4 hours after the ibuprofen. That eventually did the trick and her fever broke about 9:45pm.

Thursday morning her fever was in the 99 - 100 range and I kept the alternating meds going consistently. At 5pm her fever was 103, and it was time for ibuprofen, of which I gave her 600 mg. Unfortunately, at 6pm, her fever was 104.4. That was the moment I grabbed my purse and keys and rushed her to Urgent Care. We undressed her and got the fever down to 102.2 shortly after arriving. They administered more tylenol at 6:30pm and then wanted to monitor her to make sure the fever was dropping before letting us go home. At 7pm, her fever had gone up to 102.7...that wasn't good, it was supposed to be going down! They decided to wait another 15 minutes, at which time her fever had gone up again. It was now 103.1 and they could do nothing else for us, they sent us out the door with instructions that I get her to the ER.

By 8:45pm, we were walking to a room at the Children's ER, fever still 102.7. They were very thorough and intentional on finding the source of the fever. A chest X-ray revealed that Chloe has pneumonia. They also took blood (she is becoming a real pro at this) and did a few other tests (have you ever helped a young child urinate in a cup?). One thing to note, I highly recommend CMC Children's ER. They were wonderful! Also, they have a new thing called a "J-Tip." This nifty little invention injects numbing medication into the child's arm using air (they feel nothing) and within 2 minutes all is numb and they do not feel the IV needle prick at all. It is a beautiful thing.

We left the ER at about 12:45am, Chloe having had a full bag of fluids via IV. I was starving b/c I had not eaten since 2pm. We went through the drive-thru at McDonalds. I ordered a large fry, but heard "I'm sorry, we are cleaning the oil vents and do not have any fries right now." What? McD's has no fries for a girl at 1am? So, we settled for ice cream. Chloe had a caramel sundae, I had the new Reese's McFlurry (snack size). YUM. And for the record, Chloe was still very sick b/c she didn't want it all. At 1:30am her fever was still 103.

Today, we have been fever free!!! Still kept the alternating meds going, but thrilled that her temp never went up...she is too! She did NOT want to go back to the ER, and she heard them tell me if her fever went up to 104 again that I would need to bring her back. So, I capitalized on this and told her she had to rest all day to help her get better. She interpreted that to mean that if she stood up or got up at all, her fever would go up. Hahaha. I heard, "Mom, can I go to the bathroom? Will my fever go up?" Obviously, I told her it was OK to go to the bathroom, but I said she would need to go there and then lay back down because we NEED her to get better. We have BIG Christmas plans, plans that have been in the works for months. She MUST rest b/c come Sunday morning we have a surprise date with a...

stay tuned.