What a Weekend

Our weekend began with my husband going to the ER on Friday night for some abdominal pain he's had on and off for quite a while. For a couple days there, it got pretty bad. He was in a lot of pain and was nauseous off and on. He was treated for the discomfort and given some meds to take home, and he's got an appointment with a GI specialist tomorrow afternoon. They'll likely do an endoscopy and some more testing to try and figure out what's going on. The ER doctor said it could be an ulcer or gastritis, but hopefully soon we will know for sure. They also gave him a special (read: super bland) diet to stick to in the meantime, and that does seem to be helping.


Saturday, I woke up to Colin's usual "I'm awake, come get me" babbling on the monitor, thankful we would have the day to do nothing and get some rest. Well. Later in the morning, Colin felt really warm to me, so I took his temp. He had a fever, but at that point it was low-grade, so I figured it might be teething related (he's got two coming in now). When his temp got up to 103.1, I gave him some Motrin, and kept an eye on him... but I was starting to worry. He quickly went from his usual, happy self to a cranky, sleepy, SCREAMING child I had never seen before. Something was seriously wrong. We decided to take him to urgent care and have him checked out. I thought it might be an ear infection.


When we got there, he was weighed (well, they weighed me with and without him, because he was too sick to stand up and be weighed on his own). 28 pounds, the nurse said. The last time we weighed him at home, he was over 30 pounds, but oh well. I guess we'll get his accurate weight at his 18 month appointment in July. Anyway. We were whisked into a room, and the nurse took his temp rectally. 103.7. Wait, what?! When we left the house, it had been 101.5. My poor baby's temp had spiked in a matter of maybe 45 minutes. He was immediately given a dose of Tylenol, and when the nurse practitioner came in and checked out his ears, she had no doubt - both ears were infected. It was hard to have a conversation with her above Colin's screaming, but we agreed to get a shot of antibiotics to get them working more quickly, as he was obviously in a lot of pain.


The shot was terrible. The nurse administering it warned that it can really burn going in, so I held my sweet boy's arms while Justin kept his legs still. After the shot, Colin held his breath for a second before he cried. I hate that so much. It was obvious that he was really hurting from both the ear infection and the shot. I fought tears of my own as I picked him up and tried to calm him down. I wanted to take his pain away, or at least to be able to explain to him that the medicine would make him feel better. It's so hard to see your child in pain.


After that, we came home and did a lot of snuggling, and Colin did a lot of sleeping - mostly on me. We kept our sickie out of church today and snuggled in bed as a family when Colin woke at 6:45. I thought last night was going to be awful, but he only woke up a couple times, the last being at 1 am. We started the oral version of the antibiotic today and have been keeping up with the Motrin, but even without it Colin's temp has only been 102.2 at its highest, so I think the meds are starting to work.


Long story short, I've been taking care of two boys this weekend. My hubby is feeling a bit better, but is unable to move around too much without feeling the stomach pain, so I've had to do a lot on my own over the weekend. Add a sick little boy to that, and this momma is pretty exhausted. Here's hoping next weekend (Father's Day weekend!) is better.