Fever

This morning we went to a new playgroup at Granville Library. There seemed to be kids everywhere, it was chaotic, and Inigo loved it. There was singing, dancing, and storytime. The kid was enthralled, and he was ready to go back to bed after lunch.

After his nap we went into the city for some socialising. He was in fine form, and charmed everyone, until at 5pm at Miriam’s in Summer Hill he started screaming, went bright red, and his temperature was 38.7c.

Instead of freaking out, I gave him some baby panadol and decided to wait half an hour.

At 5.40pm, his temp was 38.9c, and the panicking began. I called Mark, who agreed that it was better to get him to a hospital soon, rather than taking the chance that his temp would rise further. Of course, this was smack in the middle of peak hour, so we went to RPA instead of Westmead, where I hear the emergency paediatricians are excellent 😉

Traffic was horrible, and by the time we were half way there he was fast asleep. And when we got there his temp seemed (to my untrained hand), close to normal. There was some uncharacteristic full throated and high pitched screaming in the waiting room, but apart from that he seemed normal.

I pressed on regardless, and three hours later we are home. Apparently it’s completely normal for a kid to go from normal temp to a high fever at the drop of a teacup, and then for it to come right down after a dose of panadol.

We did a urine sample, which looks clean, and he was checked all over for lumps, bumps, spots and swellings. Apart from a possibly swollen gland on the right side of his jaw, it was all clear.

He had a long breastfeed and then ate all his solids while we waited for the urine test, and was the very picture of health.

Apparently he has a “virus”. I’m to keep his fluids up, make sure he gets plenty of rest, and give him more panadol if he needs it.

And the “days since we’ve been in hospital” counter is reset 😉