A Sick Schnook

Thursday night, as I mentioned before, Ryan was up ALL night screaming. His temperature was near 104 degrees and wouldn't come down with tylenol. I called the doctor in the morning and got him seen by Dr. Zehr. She gave him a prescription for Omnicef, noting that the last time he had an ear infection, it didn't seem to clear up with just typical antibiotics so this was something stronger. She also recommended tylenol as needed and said that with his fever this high (it was 104.1 there) it was critical that he drink but don't worry so much about the food. She also said he should feel better within 24 hours. Well, 24 hours came and went, and Ryan was still miserable. He wouldn't eat, he was rather lethargic, very fussy and I felt so bad for him. He wasn't sleeping at all overnight either.

But, the pediatrician was closed at this point on the weekend. Eventually, I called on Sunday after the doctor should be out of church and asked for some guidance. She said to make sure he's getting some sugar (giving him straight juice) because with him only drinking water he could be lethargic from having extremely low blood sugar since little men don't have the reserves we have. She also said to try Motrin if his fever wasn't responding to the Tylenol. Being that high for that many days, he could just be in fatigue mode. I was feeling fatigued from him not sleeping - he was exhausted but couldn't seem to settle. He wouldn't drink the juice, but the Motrin did bring the fever down. But, it spiked again the next day, so I called the pediatrician again. I was getting really worried and prayed that God would heal my baby!

We were blessed to get right into the pediatrician, and it happened to be Dr. Tifft, one of our favorites. Ryan walked right up to him as he came in, which the doctor said is very unusual for his age. He said that this could be a reaction to the shots he had had just one week prior, BUT his ear still wasn't better even though it seemed to be better than the original "HORRIFIC" diagnosis that Dr. Zehr had described his one ear. He confirmed that Ryan wasn't contagious - you can't catch an ear infection, you can't catch a bad reaction to shots, and you can't catch Roseola at this stage (sp?) IF that's what this was (his other guess) but since a rash never came, we can rule out that assumption. He prescribed an even stronger antibiotic - Augmentin - and that did the trick. The next day, Ryan had more than a half a dozy diarrhea diapers - YIKES! and the doctor had asked that I call and specifically tell him if there was a rash, if his fever was still there, etc. He cautioned that if he kept having diarrhea that we'd have to stop the antibiotic BUT he said that it may get better as Ryan ate more solid foods. Again, I prayed!

And God answered our prayers. Ryan started eating and the diarrhea stopped immediately. I gave him yogurt with culturelle mixed in, and between the Motrin and the new antibiotic within a couple days, Ryan was back to our joyful, easygoing, playful self. Praise the Lord! He weighed in around 22 lbs 8 oz the first doctor's visit and slightly less the second one, but he hadn't eaten a thing during the time period in between. So, I think we can safely say we've gotten over the hurdle! :)