Lea and I have had a cold and cough for about a week, but we've been powering through and feeling better.
So on Saturday we started the day with Brunch with Becky, Hopens and Sherry at Garden Café where Lea got to play on a playground.
Then Becky and I headed to a clothing exchange where I traded two trash bags full of old clothes for three grocery bags (3 for me, 3 for Becky) full of new to me clothes. There was a definite purple theme... I got a purple skirt, purple dress and purple shorts! Also 2 pairs of jeans for Lea and some shirts. A fun experience. And there Lea got to play on a playground while I shopped.
From there we headed to Cottonwood Art Festival where Lea made a pretty blue hat and a plaster cast with her name, a fish and butterfly and other designs. Her favorite activity though was banging on the plaster block with a chisel and a hammer. We spent a long time in the kids area and then dragged Lea to the grown-up artist's displays. Lea did get to take the treacherous rock path instead of just the bridge across Cottonwood creek. Once we got to the boring grown-up stuff Lea started complaining she was tired and her legs hurt. We walked three rows of artists and saw Niki, my former co-worker at the Advocate. We hadn't eaten since brunch so finally we sat and had some chicken fingers despite her insisting she was not hungry. I got Lea to eat with the promise that she would get to chisel again across the creek. Since Lea just wanted to head back to the kids area I did not take her complaint of being tired and achy too strongly. I just thought it was due to a long day and boring grown up stuff.
However, when we finally went home around 4pm as she lay on the couch sacked out watching cartoons. She still said she was not hungry but I put a bowl of jello in front of her, of which she only ate 3 bites. She sogged on to the couch and complained she was freezing. She started shivering under the blanket and was burning up. When we took her temp it was 102.5. We gave Lea some cough and cold med with acetaminophen. Lea started falling asleep. Dan would wake her and ask her if she was tired and she'd say no and go back to sleep. She could not stay awake. So while we realized she was exhausted it was like she was passing out. We hemmed and hawed briefly and by 8pm we were at the Baylor ER.
At triage her fever was up to 103 and her pulse was over 150. She was given a dose of Tylenol and told to wait. We settled into the chairs and watched the CNN crawler as Lea dozed across our laps for about an hour and a half. We had one more vital sign check with a different nurse and her fever was 100.3 so we asked if it was right to stay or if we were over-reacting and the nurse said that her pulse was still high so she'd check with the doctor. Then about half an hour later we got shown to a room. Lea was more alert and more herself. A very nice young woman doctor took care of us. Lea got a chest X-ray. She had an oxygen/pulse meter taped on her finger that plugged into another cord to the machine that goes beep. When she had to go to the X-ray room I said it looked like she had a little pet (the cord hanging from her finger). So when we went home they were going to throw away the finger part connected to Lea so we took it home to put in her doctor kit.
She had to go potty so I offered to collect a sample if they wanted it. While balancing on the floor collecting urine from a sick 5 year old I may have let the top touch the floor so I don't know how scientific that test was, but it came back with some bacteria. They suspected a urinary tract infection. The good news to me was there was no dehydration which is what I was so worried about after our long day.
Having made the huge leap to a hospital room when so many were still in the waiting room with arm bands and weary faces was huge for us. We got our own TV, but no cartoons. We should have gone to Doctor's Hospital where during Grandma's knee surgery recuperation Lea could always find Sponge Bob. We ended up watching Eddie Murphy in Coming to America on ABC Family. But just as the first kiss happened our credit card was taken, a prescription for penicillin was given and we were allowed to leave. It was about midnight and had been a very long day.
The next day was spent watching movies and resting. Lea and I watched Tinkerbell Fairy Rescue and Shrek 1 & 2. At dinner time Lea still had a fever off and on and had little appetite. We watched Ghostbusters 2 and had a few crackers. Lea did eat up some carrots and Ranch and drank her Grape Pedialite. The nurse said not to worry if she didn't eat as long as she'd take a bite or two and kept drinking.
Monday we kept Lea home from school, though she was much more herself. Ready to play and didn't show signs of a fever all day. We made sure to not give her acetaminophen to make sure she was truly without a fever and not just the medication controlling it. By Monday night she was gobbling up roast. We made sure to keep her well rested with naps and she's doing great.
Of course now Daddy has the creeping crud.
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