Under the Weather

If you're wondering why Annie and I were not picking beans in the garden 1st thing Saturday morning it's because Miss Annie has been feeling under the weather since about mid day on Friday; which made for a long and exhausting weekend...along with all the other stuff we had going on. I noticed she felt warm just before lunch on Friday and after taking her temperature (it was just over 102 F) started her on the Motrin/Tylenol rotation. Her fever stayed up and was over 103F by bedtime. At that point Levi called the pediatrician and they instructed us to keep a close eye on her through the night and bring her in the next morning. At some point during the night her fever started to subside a bit and we got a decent nights sleep. She and I went to the doctor Saturday morning and after a good check over, blood work and a urine test (to rule out a UTI) she was diagnosed with a viral infection and we were sent home to do our best to keep the fever down and keep her as comfortable as possible. The day wasn't too bad...we kept her inside most of the day (while we "snapped" green beans) and the fever stayed under control...the night was another story though. It took quite a while to get her to sleep and she was up around 1am with a fever over 103F again...we gave her more Motrin and I cooled her down with a wet wash rag. After about an hour and a half she was comfortable enough to go back to sleep and she slept good the rest of the night. The next morning things seemed to be looking up...the fever was almost gone and she really seemed to be feeling much more like herself, but around 7:30pm the fever once again returned and got up to a little over 102F...despite the fever she slept fairly good and was only up once during the night and it was just for more medicine then back to sleep. Yesterday was miserable...she wasn't running much, if any, fever, but she was very cranky and was alternating between being her normal happy self, being a little fussy and full on, top-of-the-lungs crying. She took about a 2 hour nap and was even worse when she woke up, so I decided to call the doctor again. After talking with a nurse they thought it would be best to bring her in again to make sure the infection hadn't spread to her ears or any where else, so we loaded up and headed back over. After another good exam and more blood work the doctor said that there wasn't anything more going on than on Saturday...nothing had spread to her ears, throat or anywhere else (a good thing) and that if things haven't improved by Wednesday to being her in again. So we came back home and had a pretty good night...it took a while to get her to sleep, but once she was it was smooth sailing for the rest of the night. As of now, I am happy to report that she seems to be almost back to normal today. I have not noticed any fever and her mood is good as it has been since last Thursday. She is still a bit more tired/sleepy than normal, but otherwise she seems great...I just hope it keeps up and we are working on returning to normal again. It's amazing how exhausting it can be to have a sick one in the house...even for those who aren't feeling bad.

On a side note we got a few really good pictures on Sunday, so with any luck I can get some of those up at some point today...stay tuned.