Torran is a sick little boy.
This illness started with his first introduction day to the new nursery school the thursday before Labour day weekend. Three hours of exposure to little people and two days later he's getting sniffles. No big deal, there was no fever and the cough was only a problem at night, as coughs can be. For two weeks he'd intermittently cough a couple of times at night, waking himself and us up. A drink of water and he'd go back to sleep.
A week ago Saturday the fever and real cough came. Again, it wasn't a huge problem, but he was coughing frequently enough and had ongoing fever that we kept him home from nursery school. His appetite was reduced, but he was still putting food in. So long as the fever was under control, he had enough energy to be a monkey.
By wednesday I was pretty fed up with not getting any sleep because of his cough, and how much coughing he had throughout the day. I broke the rules and gave him a half dose of the cough suppressant and decongestant for 6 year olds. He still didn't have a runny nose, and the gunk wasn't in his lungs. The congestion was pretty much in his head. It helped to a degree, and at least he got more sleep that night.
The fever broke initially on Thursday (although he was still coughing a lot). Friday he was allowed to go to school despite an occassional cough (still no fever). Saturday was pretty uneventful until the night time...
He woke up Saturday night crying, unable to express his needs and generally miserable. And he was febrile again. After much much coaxing, he finally conveyed that his ear hurt. It's not usual for ears to hurt because of a cold, either because of fluid build up in the ear, or because of a secondary ear infection.
Sunday morning, a little more eloquent because he wasn't fatigued by sleep, he was able to convey that both his ears hurt. Off I went to get over the counter ear drops for infection (also useful for the eyes). His fever hadn't returned during the day but I had also given him meds for pain which may have been masking it. Torran even seemed to have regained more of his appetite by the weekend as he pillaged much of the Not-So-Innocent Viking Chick's fries at dinner time (my SCA friend Lyda).
That evening, he bounded around the garden with Bruce and the NSI Viking Chick and I bounded around Azeroth (Warcraft).
Plauge hit him during the night. His fever raged, he coughed and gagged on his very thick mucous which then made him throw up his entire meal. That night, Torran woke coughing, gagging and vomiting every two hours or so. Needless to say, I didn't sleep. Bruce barely got enough to get into work.
Monday Torran had no energy at all. He sat up for 20 minutes to eat a slice of toast and spent the rest of the day laying on myself, Lyda or the couch. Lyda had changed her plans and hung out with us until Bruce came home, which was really helpful when Torran threw up all over me and both of us needed a bath (whilst the Bell technician was working in the house to install the new tv service). He was grimacing all day on and off in pain, but denied ear pain or headache. In the morning, he answered yes about his throat hurting, but that response didn't last the whole day.
Three year olds aren't the most articulate to express pain when they're sick to begin with. Add his other issues in there and basically our best bet is to go by objective evidence. At one point I was hopeful when, after bathing him for the third time for vomitting green bile all over himself, he splashed a bit in the bath, wanted to play with the toys and then had a mind to get into mischief with the towel rack. After which, he had some appetite and ate the mother measured out 10 goldfish crackers. He wanted more but I didn't want to push his tummy. This energy spurt was short lived, however.
Torran's paediatrician took us in at the end of the day (thank you!!), after an eventful barfy ride in the car to get there. I have never cursed the poor quality of the roads as much as I did with the basin jammed under Torran's chin with him straped in the car seat as his second meal of the day, the goldfish crackers, exited his mouth.
His emesis didn't concern me so much, save that I couldn't control it from happening - it was all related to gagging on large amounts of mucus (kids can't clear it as well as adults). That he'd only pee'd once from 7am until 5pm did.
The doc looked in his ears and suggested that the right one may have a bit of infection. He agreed that, without projectile vomiting (not preceeded by a cough), seizures, tracking/swelling of the shunt, and cognitive or irritability, the shunt isn't likely a cause of infection. Even though Torran wasn't pulling at his ears (which could be a sign of pain), the general malaise may have been.
So we started him on antibiotics last night, a steroid spray to maybe help reduce nasal congestion and Zofran to maybe help with vomiting, although it is mostly mechanical.
Today sees Torran much the same. He's gag/vomited less but still has absolutely no energy. He hasn't stood on his own power yet. It's just after 1pm and he's again sleeping for over an hour during the day - something he hasn't done for ages. Fever's still there too. And he's lost 1kg in weight since I weighted him last just over a week ago.
Without any new or worrying symptoms, I have to give the antibiotics a couple of days to work. At least he's been able to keep down the pedialyte (drink with electrolytes in it to replace what he lost through vomitting). But he hasn't eaten yet today. He had a "better" night with no vomitting but he still woke up several times.
Now it's just a game of symptom management, watch and wait... with lots of extra towels, clean linens and a basin on hand!
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