Charlotte had us so worried the other night. We took XX to the ER for the first time because the mild fever she had (99-100F) turned into a high fever (104F). We brought her to the pediatrician when she first had the fever but he couldn't find anything wrong with her. He concluded that it was something viral and said there wasn't anything we could do about it. And since the Tylenol we had been giving her didn't help reduce the fever, the Dr. suggested that we stop the Tylenol altogether, and just wait a couple days for her body to fight the infection. (Now, we know that stopping the Tylenol wasn't a good idea at all!)
So it didn't seem like she was getting any better. Her fever just kept getting higher and higher to the point where she was not really responding to anything (it was so scary!). We were so worried because although the fever was so high, her body was getting cold (her legs were purple). We finally took her to Children's Hospital in D.C. to have her checked out.
To make a long story short, we stayed at the ER for a full 12 hrs (12a.m.-12.p.m. - mostly waiting for the blood test results and for XX to pee (they thought she had a UTI). But after 12 long hours, and after all the hassle and pain (blood draws, etc.), the ER doc still couldn't explain the fever (beyond what we knew already - something viral). We were glad that all the test results were good, but I was pretty disappointed with the hospital, and especially with their nurses. We drove all the way down to D.C., thinking that Children's would specialize in children's care. But when we were there, the nurses were first rough with the catheter, and then they couldn't even find XX's veins to take her blood. And when they finally got the blood flowing, one of the nurses dropped the tube on the floor and the blood went everywhere. It was A MESS!!!!!
The next day XX broke out in a rash all over her body. My friend Abbey thought it might be Roseola, but sometime before I told Dave about it, I remembered it as Ophelia. I told Dave and he started thinking - Ophelia? What kind of infection is that? And then out of nowhere he bursts out, "Roseola! Childhood exanthem! I learned about this in class! Three days' fever and two days' rash, flat red non-itchy bumps. Every kid gets it." We put her back on Tylenol and on the second day of the rash she was back to her smiley, goofy self again.
Now a week after the whole ordeal, XX is back to normal but the bruises from the bad nurses are still on her little hands. Sigh...poor XX!
