This has been one of those weeks so rich in material I don't know where to start. Here are some of the headlines:
1) Baby stricken with bladder infection; runs fever of 104; hid painful urination from devoted mom
2) Clark Kent wears glasses; Isaac might need glasses: coincidence?
3) Husband blighted by gray spot at center of vision; couple spends four hours separately contemplating brain tumor; dad stuns son with orange pee after day of invasive medical testing
4) Couple signs life away to get new house; mortgage reaches well into dotage
5) Dog needs surgery under general anesthesia to correct bad pedicure
6) Youngster observes that sparkly label on Ice Breaker Sours, "Shines with divine light!"; mom renews concern about religious component at preschool
7) Lone family member survives week without medical/veterinary intervention
So that's the executive summary. It's been one big, pardon my French, clusterfuck of house and medical crises. This morning, though, we closed on the house! Tomorrow morning, we'll go down and get the keys. So exciting! I think it's safe to predict that the next two months are going to be exhausting and challenging in myriad ways, but: eyes on the prize. When the dust settles, we'll be rolling around in the grass on that limitless expanse of green.
Of all the crises this week, the baby situation yesterday was by far the worst part. He'd had a fever at night for a few nights in a row, but I honestly chalked it up to teething. So too the occasional outburst of pain-crying. Gas, teething, whatever. It would only last five minutes or so and then he'd be his normal glowingly wonderful jolly self. At night I would sometimes give him a little Tylenol. But the teeth were a red herring, it turns out. Yes, he is teething. AND suffering from a bladder infection. I really didn't see that one coming.
I guess two nights ago it did worry me that sleeping with him, in my sleep, his little body felt like a heating pad. Also in my sleep I gave him Tylenol, but thought guiltily that I should get up and take his temperature before slumping into dreamland again. But I didn't. Yesterday morning he seemed rather out of it. When I dropped Isaac off at school he looked downright glassy-eyed. I met my friend Barbara for coffee after dropping our kids off, and while we were sitting there at the cafe, the baby's listlessness and sweltering heat were impossible to miss. Amazingly in my magic diaper bag I found a digital thermometer and took his temp. At about 9 a.m. it was about 100, ancillary (in his armpit) which meant 101 for real. I thought that was high, because he'd had Tylenol not too long beforehand. After another hour or so, I got worried enough to call the dr and make an appt for 1 p.m. The another hour elapsed. (We were talking away and also waiting to pick up the kids at 11:30.) He really felt like he was hot enough to cook an egg on. I took his armpit temp again: 103. Ancillary, with Tylenol! That means, really 104.
At that point, I got really worried. SUPER worried. I called the dr back to see if I could get in earlier, but no. So I said I was thinking about taking him to the ER, because this was over the top. The nurse suggested a tepid bath, but said that if I was really that worried I should just go. When I mentioned that I couldn't give him a tepid bath right then because I was in a cafe, I could tell that she was appalled. This is an uncomfortable part of having two children! In doing right by one (planning on a short day for Isaac because that was our agreement), I was neglecting the other. Anyway, I decided that the baby was somehow incredibly sick and needed immediate medical attention, and that Isaac would have to stay at school until 3:15. Barbara grabbed something for Isaac to eat for lunch and we stepped out to implement the plan. However, at that very moment the skies opened with a truly blinding rainstorm.
After dropping off lunch and telling Isaac the bad news that he would have to stay (he cried and it broke my heart, but I had to go!) I drove to the ER. All the way I was debating– should I wait the hour and a half til his appointment with his own doctor, or does he need to go in right now? How sick is he? How fast will he actually see a doctor at the ER anyway? How harmful is fever? What the hell is causing it? Does he have meningitis? etc. I pulled into the ER parking lot and then sat there in the pouring rain trying to figure out the best course of action. Since the rain was quite paralyzing anyway, I brought the baby into the front seat with me to evaluate the direness of the situation. But it seemed the dousing with cold water (although I had him bundled the rain was unavoidable) revived him a bit. He seemed almost normal for that moment. I took his temp again, this time rectal digital, the gold standard. Only 103.2! At that point I decided that he was unlikely to die in the next hour, and that going to see his own pediatrician would be better service and probably even faster in the long run. I paid a $10 fee for wrongfully entering the ER parking lot, and drove two blocks to the proper parking lot for my needs.
The doctor ran through all the obvious causes of such a fever. No ears, no throat, no vomiting, no cough, no runny nose, no NOTHIN'. This is why I thought it was teething in the first place! He said it could be roseola, which had actually crossed my mind. Isaac had that one time– just a plain unadorned baking fever, followed by a rash some days later. But then he said there was another thing they had to rule out: bladder issues. Okay, gulp. I knew that meant a catheter, which didn't sound like a nice idea at all. And indeed it wasn't! Horrible. Just the iodine swabs were painful to watch. And then he was dry as the Sahara. There simply was nary a DROP of pee in there to be had. And the pushing and prodding and twisting to confirm this was painful to watch. The poor baby!!! I nursed him in a gymnastic position while he was going through it, and that helped a lot. But when the nurse left the room with me doubled over the examining table, my lower back beginning to smart, and the cath still in the poor wee thing, I wondered how long she planned to leave us like that. But she returned promptly with the doctor, showing him the stunning barren dryness therein. No option but to tape a sad little plastic bag to his baby boy parts and wait, wait, wait until he went of his own accord. (He had had a wet diaper on, so we weren't worried about dehydration.)
And wait. And wait. I called Ben and told him to drop everything because I couldn't get Isaac in time. He began rushing up to us. My phone was nearly dead. But in my magic diaper bag I found not only water and a cookie, but the complete NY Times from that morning, pristine and untouched. So that's how I passed the hours with my hot, fussy boy. Trying to get him to nurse or drink Pedialyte from a bottle. When he finally peed it was excruciating and his screams almost unendurable. But pee he did. A quick test showed he was positive for a bladder infection and the mystery was solved.
Still, such a thing is strange in one so tiny. In a few weeks he will have to have some additional tests, an ultrasound of his kidneys and a dye test of his bladder to make sure he doesn't have some structural defect of some kind. we'll cross that bridge, etc.
I dragged my sorry and bedraggled self home right though rush hour. We were supposed to close on the house at 6:30! But Ben had cancelled it, thank god.
Today Elias has been overall better. He has hard core antibiotics, which may explain the bout of projectile vomiting and extreme diarrhea. His fever has been coming and going. I checked at 4:00 or so and found it to be around 102. But then a short time later he delivered a long and complex speech on ending tyranny that would have made Churchill proud. All in Urdu, alas. And he has had interludes of good cheer. He's much better than yesterday. the doctor says the infection was/is pretty bad and will take several days to resolve, but we're on the right track, anyway.
Tomorrow, Isaac and I are going to get up early and go watch the blowing up of a large bridge. Then we're all going down to get the keys to the new house and then just go wallow in it for a while. Many logistics between living here and living there, but step one: get the house: has been completed.
The rest of the medical/veterinary/vision related issues are not seeming as important right now.
8) Baby okay; new house awaits.