First trip to the ER

The last few days Jackson has been running a little warm – nothing crazy, but we could tell he was warmer than normal. He has also had a decreased appetite and has been going to bed at 630-7pm (normal bedtime is 830pm). We thought maybe some more teeth were coming in – guess we were wrong :(

Monday night he had a temp. of 101.6 – we gave him a luke warm/cold bath and pumped liquids in him. Put him to bed at 7pm and watched him all night long.  He woke up yesterday (Tuesday) with a normal temp (98.3). Last night, again his temp spiked up so we gave him another cold bath and put him to bed a little earlier than normal. 

Both Shane and I woke up at 1am to a door slamming (the windows were open and the wind slammed the door shut). We immediately went in to check Jackson – he was BLAZING HOT and crying. We took his temp – 101.7. Shane immediately called Evergreen Hospital to ask what we should do.  They suggested we bring him in. I can’t even begin to say how helpless I felt!  We put a cold washcloth on him and within seconds the washcloth was warm.  So we brought him into our room and laid him in the pack n play. He was restless and could not get comfortable. Shane kept insisting we take him to the ER, but I just wanted to give it a little while to see if he just needed to be in a cooler room (his room was 88 degrees).

About 45 minutes into sleeping into our room, Jackson sat up and started crying. I immediately picked him up and he was even hotter than before. Shane and I didn’t even have to say a word, we both grabbed our things and headed for the door. But before we could get further than 10 feet, Jackson started throwing up….and I began to cry. My poor baby – he is throwing up, what do I do? I didn’t panic – but I knew we had to get to the hospital FAST. 

We decided to head to Steven’s Hospital rather than Evergreen because it seemed closer.  We got there and the ER was empty (thank you baby Jesus). But as soon as we got to registration, Jackson was barfing the mother of all barfs. Shane was covered, I was covered and Jackson was covered. Jackson was so lethargic and moaning – poor guy was so unhappy.  By about 230am a doctor came to see us and diagnosed Jackson with an ear infection AND a viral infection.  Steven’s did a great job of giving him meds and then making us wait to make sure he was doing okay with the meds.  After about an hour, Jackson’s fever went down significantly, and although tired, he was doing much better.

We left at about 430am and headed home.  I immediately put Jackson back to bed (which was no trouble at all) and he slept until 8am this morning. He ate a full breakfast (2 blueberry pancakes) and a ton of milk and water. His demeanor is super happy and playful – the Jackson we know.

We got antibiotics for his ear infection and have to give him Motrin & Tylenol every 6 hours to keep his fever down.

I have to say – I have never been so scared in my entire life.  Although I knew it was nothing so serious it couldn’t be fixed, all of the “what-if’s” just kept running through my head. I’m so glad I listened to my husband and took Jackson to the ER. Peace of mind.

The most ironic part of this event. For the first time, Jackson said, “Mom” and meant it. While holding him, he looked up at me with his sad eyes, and moaned, “Mommmm”.