Sickie

Ethan started feeling a bit under the weather on Friday, and then by mid-afternoon was so warm that we knew he had a fever. When I finally got home to my temporal thermometer (thanks, mom & dad!), we checked his temp and got a little scare: 102.7 degrees. That was a bit too high for my tastes, so it was time to get to business. Julie was spending the evening with us, so she helped me strip him down to his diaper, get some infant tylenol into his body, and try to keep him drinking his juice. An hour later, when we checked his temp again, it had already dropped to 101.3, which was a relief.

I called the Kaiser Permanente advice nurse and she told me that the temporal thermometer gives the same reading as a rectal thermometer-- guess that means I don't have to do the invasive booty check ever again!-- and that the read-out is typically one degree higher than a temp taken orally. She gave me some advice (no bath, keep him cool but don't let him shiver, up the fluid intake, check for rashes or changes in demeanor, use the humidifier, etc.) and really just encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing, and monitor his temp. It was pretty comforting to know that they are there 24 hours a day, ready to assist over the phone with any of these little situations that pop up.

One thing that weirded me out, though; she said that "if his temp gets up to 106, we want you to take him in to Emergency." Um, really? Because I would be in there about two degrees earlier, and there is no possible way I'd wait until he got all the way up to 106 to call anyone about his fever. Holy moley, people! Give me some credit!!

Anyway-- He's still feeling pretty yucky, and hasn't been sleeping well, but at least his fever is down. Here's the awesome thermometer that we love so much: