[twitter]When we came back from our camping trip this week, Zacharie was a little lethargic. I just chalked it up to a cold night camping, and him just needing some extra z’s on the ride home.
When we got home, however, we noticed flushed cheeks and a low grade fever. This is when it kicks in, right? Searching Dr Google for symptoms to get an eye for what’s wrong. It’s usually just nothing, but you never know! So you have a small panic, and search, seek, and hover, to make sure your baby is fine.
While his mood turned around on Monday morning, the fever stayed and so we kept him home from school. He was happy to do his animal project on his own at the kitchen table, but was disappointed to find out he would have to skip his first night of Pedalheads.
Then, in our continuous checking of symptoms, we noticed he had red dots at the back of his throat. Again, Dr Google came to help and pointed us to a strep throat diagnosis. I called Alberta HealthLink to get some advice. This Nurse’s Help Line has been invaluable in our parental career. It’s like calling “Dr Mom.” They walk you through symptoms, make sure you don’t make irrational decisions, and only send you to emergency (to wait for 3 hours) when you really need to.
The nurses said it usually takes a day to diagnose strep, and you don’t start antibiotics until you have confirmation. So I could just treat his fever at home and see if it went away, or I could go to the clinic and get them working in the lab, and kill two birds at the same time. So we did.
And as Zacharie sat on the bench watching The LEGO Movie while we waited, my heart sank. The picture of him sitting on the bench with all the doctor gadgets behind him reminded me of the time we had to take Charlie for hernia surgery.
It was a routine operation, just as this is a routine fever, but still … you know?
It hurts me more than it hurts them.
It always will.
Anytime your child is down, sad, hurt, sick, whatever.. it hurts the parent more than it hurts the child. It just does.
Zacharie is home again today, still with a fever, but in better spirits. So mine are raised, just a bit, because when you have a bit of your soul running around outside your body, you never are truly relaxed.