Daniel spiked a fever last week.
Now, all the boys have been sick lately, just the creeping crud that pretty much everyone has had, but when they get a fever, I get out the Tylenol. When Daniel gets a fever, I get out the suitcases.
There's a protocol to follow when a cancer patient spikes a fever and the two-fold reason is because of a.) the risk that the infection might be serious, and b.) that his suppressed immune system won't be able to fight it alone. We've never had a bad scare, but it can be a pretty big deal so we have to pay attention to a fever.
Daniel first started feeling really warm Wednesday evening right before the AWANA awards ceremony - his first ever Sparky award!! His temp was elevated but still within an acceptable range so off to church we went. After he received his award - yeah!! :) - I hugged him and thought, oh no. He felt so hot! Chad borrowed a thermometer from the nursery, but thankfully he was still in a healthy range. Whew!
It probably seems silly but I'm telling you all the details to give a sense of what a fuss it is. I simply don't want to have to figure out how to take my 5 year-old's temperature in the middle of church, but we have to. Thankfully we didn't have to leave in the middle of church! The rest of the night his temp was elevated but OK and everyone went to bed. Until midnight.
At midnight another boy came to the side of the bed and said, "Mama, I kind of spit up a little bit." Oh man. That's a bummer but OK, a "little bit" of "spit up" is totally manageable. Given that I had taken Nyquil at bedtime it took my brain a minute to locate my legs but once we were assembled I got my Treasure situated on the couch and went into the boys' room to find the single-worst vomit disaster our family has ever sustained. Oh. My. Word. I will spare you any further details except to say that it was not just the Nyquil talking that in trying to decide how to proceed I considered at least twice per minute the possibility of just selling the house. Now, Chad and I have a standing arrangement: he cleans up behind pets and I clean up behind people; period, paragraph with very little deviation. It's a brilliant arrangement for both of our sakes, but this night I needed back up and no two ways about it, especially since I couldn't really see straight and the best solution I could come up with involved procuring a real estate agent. The end result was that I cleaned up all the furniture, stuffed animals, and Lego buckets while my brave, dependable and far less inebriated husband made the cross-town trek to borrow a carpet cleaner (thanks, Grandpa for insisting on meeting him halfway!). I went back to bed after an hour whereas Daddy was up until 4:00 preserving our flooring. What a night! I awoke frequently to the roar of the carpet cleaner thinking, "Oh NO! Am I being punished? What did I do?!" and then realizing that Chad was in there taking one for the team. More than once I fell back asleep so grateful that Jesus took my place with the carpet cleaner; no wait, that's not right . . . I don't know; something like that." I'm telling you, this is the stuff migraines positively feed on!
Thursday my well-fed migraine was thriving, the sick brother was on the couch, and Daniel still wasn't feeling very well but he was fever free - right up until 3:00. Seriously?! Another standing arrangement is that when Daniel goes to the hospital, I go with him while Chad stays home to wrangle the other 3 boys. It's what works best for everyone. Soooo, I packed food, activities, and a suitcase knowing that Daniel would likely be admitted to the hospital (last time it was for 10 days), and Chad packed some things for Daniel. Oy! Then we were off to Phoenix Children's Hospital (by way of the mechanic to pick up the van no less - because did I mention that life is messy?!) It's about an hour drive to PCH and we left three very sad faces in our wake (because Daniel's brothers remember last time too).
The rest of the evening was not at all what we expected.
To Be Continued . . .
Now, all the boys have been sick lately, just the creeping crud that pretty much everyone has had, but when they get a fever, I get out the Tylenol. When Daniel gets a fever, I get out the suitcases.
There's a protocol to follow when a cancer patient spikes a fever and the two-fold reason is because of a.) the risk that the infection might be serious, and b.) that his suppressed immune system won't be able to fight it alone. We've never had a bad scare, but it can be a pretty big deal so we have to pay attention to a fever.
Daniel first started feeling really warm Wednesday evening right before the AWANA awards ceremony - his first ever Sparky award!! His temp was elevated but still within an acceptable range so off to church we went. After he received his award - yeah!! :) - I hugged him and thought, oh no. He felt so hot! Chad borrowed a thermometer from the nursery, but thankfully he was still in a healthy range. Whew!
It probably seems silly but I'm telling you all the details to give a sense of what a fuss it is. I simply don't want to have to figure out how to take my 5 year-old's temperature in the middle of church, but we have to. Thankfully we didn't have to leave in the middle of church! The rest of the night his temp was elevated but OK and everyone went to bed. Until midnight.
At midnight another boy came to the side of the bed and said, "Mama, I kind of spit up a little bit." Oh man. That's a bummer but OK, a "little bit" of "spit up" is totally manageable. Given that I had taken Nyquil at bedtime it took my brain a minute to locate my legs but once we were assembled I got my Treasure situated on the couch and went into the boys' room to find the single-worst vomit disaster our family has ever sustained. Oh. My. Word. I will spare you any further details except to say that it was not just the Nyquil talking that in trying to decide how to proceed I considered at least twice per minute the possibility of just selling the house. Now, Chad and I have a standing arrangement: he cleans up behind pets and I clean up behind people; period, paragraph with very little deviation. It's a brilliant arrangement for both of our sakes, but this night I needed back up and no two ways about it, especially since I couldn't really see straight and the best solution I could come up with involved procuring a real estate agent. The end result was that I cleaned up all the furniture, stuffed animals, and Lego buckets while my brave, dependable and far less inebriated husband made the cross-town trek to borrow a carpet cleaner (thanks, Grandpa for insisting on meeting him halfway!). I went back to bed after an hour whereas Daddy was up until 4:00 preserving our flooring. What a night! I awoke frequently to the roar of the carpet cleaner thinking, "Oh NO! Am I being punished? What did I do?!" and then realizing that Chad was in there taking one for the team. More than once I fell back asleep so grateful that Jesus took my place with the carpet cleaner; no wait, that's not right . . . I don't know; something like that." I'm telling you, this is the stuff migraines positively feed on!
Thursday my well-fed migraine was thriving, the sick brother was on the couch, and Daniel still wasn't feeling very well but he was fever free - right up until 3:00. Seriously?! Another standing arrangement is that when Daniel goes to the hospital, I go with him while Chad stays home to wrangle the other 3 boys. It's what works best for everyone. Soooo, I packed food, activities, and a suitcase knowing that Daniel would likely be admitted to the hospital (last time it was for 10 days), and Chad packed some things for Daniel. Oy! Then we were off to Phoenix Children's Hospital (by way of the mechanic to pick up the van no less - because did I mention that life is messy?!) It's about an hour drive to PCH and we left three very sad faces in our wake (because Daniel's brothers remember last time too).
The rest of the evening was not at all what we expected.
To Be Continued . . .
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