August 15, 2005
Welcome, Andrey!
Exchange MVP Andrey Fyodorov has kindly offered to join us here at the Cookbook; his first post is for a nifty-neat-o Exchange backup script. Welcome, Andrey!
Posted by Paul at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2004
Poor little kid
Well, my 18-month old daughter Natalie scared the heck out of us earlier this week; she woke up feeling hot on Saturday morning, so I gave her some Motrin. A few hours later, I took her out shopping with me to pick up a few things. She did a neat new trick for me - she fell asleep in the shopping cart, which is completely out of character for her. So we scooted on home, where she proceeded to take a three hour nap in her crib (this from a child that does not sleep in her crib for more than 30 minutes, most days).
When she woke up from her nap, I went to get her and boy, did she feel H O T. Took her temperature and it wa 104. Before I could get more Motrin into her, she proceed to throw up (sorry if that's TMI - it was yukky and looked like something in a movie). Well, this made my heart just about stop beating, so I threw her jacket on her and rushed her to the Nighttime Pediatrics five minutes from the house. (Thank heaven for that place, and that they're not only open nights, but weekends too!)
The folks at Nighttime Pediatrics could not have been nicer. They took her temperature soon after we arrived, and it was up to 105. With no other visable symptims, they decided to do both blood and urine cultures (which did not please Natalie). Well, they analyzed the cultures and found that her white blood cell count was 22,000 - way out of the normal range of 5,000 to 10,000. So her little body was very busy fighting off something! They weighed her (the *only* thing she enjoyed during the visit), gave her some Motrin for her fever, and she was the lucky recipient of a shot of rocephin, a powerful antibiotic. We then waited 20 minutes or so to ensure she didn't have a reaction to the antibiotic and were sent home with instructions to return the next day.
On Sunday, Natalie's temperature was 104 when she woke up - more Motrin for her! I took Natalie back to Nighttime Pediatrics, where her regular pediatrician was on duty (he also happens to be a friend of my husband Bryan's, and one of the few people Bryan, who is a golf pro, teaches these days). It was very nice to see a familiar face when I was so worried! They took more blood from poor Natalie's finger, and her white blood cell count was down to 16,800 - still not good, but an improvement. Unfortunately for Nat, she needed more rocephin - this time the nurse said that the amount prescribed was too much to do in a single shot, so Nat had to get a shot in each leg. She was one sad little girl. Talked to our pediatrician again, and he instructed us to come his regular office the next day. The diagnosis scared the heck out of us - Sepsis. Of course, I promptly came home and looked that one up on the web, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was. I hate being right - yikes. Bryan also looked up information, then emailed our pediatrician (who responded that he thought Natalie would be better in a few days).
Monday, she had another fever when we woke up - I should buy stock in Motrin's parent company. I took her to see our doctor again, in his regular office. One more finger prick to get a blood sample - Nat's on to this game now and screams the entire time. What fun. Physically, she still looks great, and when she isn't screaming, she's more herself than she's been in a few days - the child is a little ball of sunshine. Her white blood cell count is down to around 13,000, so she gets to avoid another shot. She's now on an oral antibiotic, which, luckily, she seems to like the taste of. We get home and she spends the entire day walking back and forth through the house - what a great sight!
Tuesday morning, she woke up with a fever of 100, where it's stayed. She's obviously feeling much better, and took some time last night to stand directly in front of the TV and scream happily at the Bear in the Big Blue House, beating the screen the entire time. She cracks me up, and I'm so happy to see that she's more herself. *whew*
I've told her she simply is not allowed to do this again. I hope she listens to her mommy; I hate being scared like that!
Posted by Missy at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)