Wow, what a week! The week started off with a very cranky Joshua, and at first we thought it was just fall-out from the weekend’s big family meeting at the coast. Eventually, we discovered that he had a fever! A trip Kristen planned for Tuesday to the Enchanted Forest theme park outside Salem with Joel’s family was cancelled. We weren’t sure of the cause initially, but when he started to favor one side of his mouth and tenderly touch the other, we determined that he was probably having some two-year molar action. One of Joel’s sisters (Sarah) came up for the day on Tuesday to help with Elliott while Kristen managed Joshua. By Tuesday night, he was doing better. Sarah stayed the night and then took Joshua down to the theme park, bringing him back in the afternoon before heading back to Joel’s parents again. He had a great time!
On Thursday morning, Kristen woke up with a headache and sore throat. Throughout the day, she felt progressively worse. By the time Joel came home from work — which was later than normal due to exceptionally bad traffic — she was in really tough shape. She hadn’t had the energy to go up the stairs to get a thermometer! When Joel got it and she took her temperature, she had developed a fever over 103 degrees! We quickly made arrangements with Joel’s cousin to come feed dinner to Joshua and put him to bed, and for Sarah to come (back!) up from near Eugene to spend the night. We took Kristen in to the ER at Meridian Park Hospital in Tualatin.
After several hours of waiting and testing, all tests can back negative. Kristen’s fever had come down well below the prior danger zone, likely the result of medication, so the hospital sent us back home.
On Friday morning, Sarah took Joshua back to Joel’s parents house. Kristen rested as much as possible throughout the day, and Joel worked from home so he could assist with Elliott where needed (diaper changes, etc). Kristen’s fever continue to be present but in the 100-101 range — likely the continued effect of the medication keeping the fever down — but her throat continued to get worse for the first part of the day.
By Friday evening, Kristen was feeling a little bit better and by Saturday morning she was feeling quite a bit better. Joel drove the couple of hours down to his parents to get Joshua and bring him back home.
Meanwhile, Elliott had become quite cranky throughout the day on Saturday, and he wasn’t eating very well. When Joel and Joshua returned, we checked Elliott’s temperature a couple of times using an armpit thermometer, and it registered that he was fine. He didn’t feel fine to us though! Kristen eventually checked him with a rectal thermometer and he did have a fever of 100.4 degrees after all. We conferred quickly with the Advice Nurse and made arrangements for some nearby friends to come stay at home with Joshua so we could head to the Children’s Hospital ER, while we attempted to get in touch with family.
On the way to the hospital, we got a text message saying that Joel’s mom had her own medical emergency and that she and Joel’s dad were at urgent care themselves! Thankfully, they weren’t “Plan A” on coverage for taking care of Joshua, because they certainly weren’t able to come up with their own trauma underway! Kristen’s brother and sister-in-law eventually came over to spell off our friends.
We were super impressed with the ER at the Children’s Hospital. We were placed in a room immediately upon arriving and a nurse promptly started to check out Elliott. The doctor came by within minutes as well. She determined that blood and urine tests would be appropriate considering the circumstances. The first attempt at getting the urine sample via a catheter didn’t work; there was nothing in his bladder. Kristen fed him and then they hooked up an IV to take the necessary blood sample and give him some fluids. He was not a fan of the IV process! After a while, they did another attempt at a catheter to obtain a urine sample, and this time they were successful.
Then, we waited. Eventually, the test results came back, indicating that all seemed well, although the test results needed to continue to culture for a definitive conclusion. Elliott’s temperature was just below 100 and the hospital let us go home, with instructions to call and make an appointment with our normal children’s clinic first thing on Sunday morning to get Elliott checked again. It was well after midnight before we finally got to bed, and thankfully we were able to sleep in a little bit on Sunday morning. (With a toddler, sleeping in until 8:00 is a win!)
We called when they opened at 9:00 and created an appointment for 9:50. We quickly got ready and headed out the door for the appointment.
Elliott’s temperature was even lower yet, and he was less cranky too. They sent us home again, reassuring us that Elliott is well on the road to recovery and that there is not a cause for concern.
By Sunday night — the time of this writing — everyone seems to be mostly back to themselves. We are super thankful for the people who have devoted their careers to making great medical care available to us! And to all the family and friends who helped cover one kid or another at various points throughout the week – especially Sarah for her seemingly countless trips up and down I-5.
The medical professionals and we have no idea what caused all this. Was Joshua’s issue a tooth, a virus, both, or something else entirely? What happened with Kristen – was it really the default “virus” assessment in the absence of any other explanation? Same for Elliott? This was a wearying week…
Here’s to a better week starting tomorrow!
The Meyers 