This Just In

I am probably the only mama in history, upon finding out that her kid has pneumonia, to say “Wow, that’s a relief.” Yes, it’s true. Gavin has pneumonia. Obviously, I am not overjoyed about this news, but in comparison to other, extremely dire diagnoses, it feels kind of alright.

After our fun day in the ER on Monday, things didn’t exactly improve as much as I’d have liked. Tuesday Gavin was sort of okay but developed a terrible snotty nose and cough, Wednesday he felt well enough to go to daycare, but seemed very tired afterwards and then had a temp again that evening. Thursday he was energetic but had no appetite, and Friday I took him to see Dr. Jain again to confirm a suspected ear infection that was seen on CT. She agreed that his ears didn’t look great and we decided to do a round of antibiotics for that, hoping it would clear up the nose too.

I felt comfortable enough the next day (Saturday) to take Bean to a physio appointment and then up north to the cottage for the Victoria Day weekend to hang out with Bubby and Da. All seemed well… Saturday was glorious and we took Gav for a canoe ride before bed. But then. Saturday night he woke up at around 11:00, lava-hot. We took his temp only to discover he had a fever of 40.3 C! (104.5 F) He took some Tylenol and went back to sleep. Instead of wisely going to sleep myself, I went to the Internet and starting reading all about fevers, ear infections, and medications. (Thank you, new 3G iPad!) An hour later, Tylenol had not brought his fever down and I was starting to think hospital, which is almost an hour away. I then decided to dose him with Advil – but we had no children’s Advil. I admit I figured out the appropriate dose for his weight and chopped up an adult tablet for him to have. Luckily, he is used to swallowing pills and still does so on a daily basis. An hour later, the fever had come right down, his respiratory rate had slowed down, and he slept soundly for the rest of the night.

At least one of us did. I can’t say that I took all this in stride. I’ve mentioned before that I have been suffering some (as in a LOT) of anxiety lately and all this night-time craziness did not help. I spent the rest of the weekend deep-breathing and dosing myself with Rescue Remedy. I also spent the remainder of the time trying to logically convince myself that there was  no way these symptoms indicated relapse. My family were exasperated but patient with me.

That brings us to today. Again, Bean seemed well this morning and was playing happily. I thought he seemed well enough to go to his preschool program and he had been afebrile for more than 24 hours. I dropped him off and went to a yoga class to try to calm down. When I picked him up, though, he was teary and very, very hot. He had apparently been pretty playful at first but then seemed kind of tired and sickly. I quickly brought him home and put him on the couch. Temp read at 39.6. He passed out for a couple of hours while I talked on the phone with various people who could not put my mind at ease. I decided to take him to Dr. Jain, and we agreed that the next logical step was to do a chest x-ray to get to the bottom of this.

We did the x-ray quickly and Dr. Jain was able to call later in the afternoon to let me know that he does in fact have pneumonia. This we can and will handle. Gavin doesn’t feel terrible, the really difficult thing will be keeping him quiet to give him the chance to rest. It is hard keeping  him home from all his activities, but he has already started his (new) antibiotics and I hope will soon be feeling much better. I am thankful to have a pediatrician who always makes time to see us on the same day, and who was able to take care of this so quickly!

In a completely irritating twist, in the midst of this, guess who called? MRI! Wanting him to come in TOMORROW! I cannot bring him in with a fever and pneumonia, the anesthesia team would never agree to do it, and anyway, the results can be negatively skewed by the presence of fever.

However! They did also have a booking for next Thursday, the 31st. I am hoping he will be well enough by then. I think the WILLING for the appointment seemed to work – so just have to get all of you reading this on to WILLING this pneumonia to beat it. By next Thursday, please.