Well, what a scary night Tuesday was. I didn't even know a temperature of 106 was possible - the thermometer just kept on going and going and all I could think of was "please stop going up, please stop going up."
It all started Monday morning. I went to Ava's room to wake her up for school and noticed she felt warm. She had a temp of 101.5 so she stayed home from school and I figured she just had a bug. The day went on and around 2pm her temp was at 102.3 so I gave her some tylenol. It went down a bit but not for too long. Gave her tylenol again before she went to bed. She also started with a bad cough on Monday night. Usually when she starts coughing, it doesn't start off bad but will gradually get worse. Well this time she coughed and it sounded bad right from the start.
At 3:30am Tuesday morning her temp was 103.7 so we took her to the doctor in the morning. My first thought was that she had strep throat again because she said her throat hurt so I figured she would need an antibiotic because she had an infection. Ava NEVER gets a temp over 103 so I thought for sure, we would get antibiotics. Well, the nurse practitioner tested her for strep and for the flu Tuesday morning - both came back negative. She assured us it was just a virus and would go away soon. We took her home, Tony stayed home with her, and I went into work for a bit.
Tony texted me later to say the temp was at 103.4 even though he gave her some motrin just a couple of hours before. Told him to put her in a lukewarm bath and make sure she wore light clothing. I called the doctor again to share my concerns that her temp was still high even after meds. So she called in a prescription for Ava for tamiflu, even thought the flu test came back negative - she thought it would help with her symptoms. Well, tamiflu was $212 so I said, "no thanks - we will just try and keep her comfortable."
6:15pm - Ava went to sleep and her temp was around 102. Tony and I sat down to eat dinner. Around 7:30pm Tony noticed she was moving around a bit in bed so he went to check on her. Said, "Hey Em, she feels really warm." I took her temp and the numbers just kept climbing and climbing. Finally it stopped at 105.2. We immediately put shoes on, grabbed some flip flops for Ava, locked up the house, and got in the car.
The hospital took her temp twice and I sat there watching the numbers climb. First time it was 106, second time it was 106.2. I almost started crying. The guy taking the temp looked at the nurse and told her, "I took it twice." They went and got ice packs to put under her arms. Ava's little heart rate was high. She started to cry but I wanted her to calm down thinking, what if she has a seizure? Got us in a room and as we walked into the room, the doctor walked right in with us and started askinng us questions. "When did it start, does she have a cough, did you go anywhere this weekend, did she get bit, is there cancer is your family . . . " Then you could hear them consulting with one another by their computers - "They said they went to oceanside to a pumpkin patch, she didn't go swimming, cough started yesterday, . . . " I was grateful they were moving quickly with trying to help her. So they did lab work, urine test, chest x-ray and took the labs in a big orange bag that said STAT. Gave her some fluids and they took her temp again and it had gone way down. I was so grateful for everyone's prayers that night.
When all of the tests came back, it was determined she had Pneumonia and they gave her some antibiotics through her IV. I was so relieved we had an answer.
Ava was such a trooper. Anytime one of the doctors or nurses asked how she was, she would say, "I'm good." She was very relieved they could just leave the needle in her arm so that they wouldn't have to poke her again each time they gave her something. The doctors and nurses were wonderful. Our nurse brought Tony and I some coffee and crackers - I jokingly asked how much it would cost (but I was only sort of half joking because I knew we would be getting a huge hospital bill in the mail). Luckily, the coffee and crackers were free.
I felt such peace knowing that the Lord arranged this night the way He did. All day I had been praying, "Lord let me know if I need to take her to the emergency room" because Ava has a very high deductible - and we don't just go to the emergency room for a sore thraot or a little slice on your finger. And He did - it was very clear we needed to take her. Also if Ava hadn't gone to sleep so early, we wouldn't have noticed her moving around it bed and checked on her. If we all went to bed at the same time, I wouldn't have checked on her for awhile and it just makes me overwhelmed to think "what if we all went to sleep and I didn't check on her for hours?" Who knows what would have happened with her temp so high for so long.
So once again, I praise God and I thank everyone for their prayers. And I am at peace with the huge bill we will get in the mail because we had to take her. And the Lord will provide for us the way He always does. I have complete peace.
"I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live." Psalm 116:1-2
-Emily
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