Highest fever ever

We spent the 4th of July weekend worrying about the baby and his strange fever. Sunday morning, it was pretty low. About 101. He was acting fine and we chalked it up to teething. His fever never really broke, but got down to the high 99s with Tylenol. Monday, he was actually seemingly okay. However, it spiked to 102 after playing outside so we rushed him home for the air conditioning and to keep a closer eye on him. We gave him some more medicine and his fever dropped to low 101.

Then, he woke up. His fever sat at 101.5 and then jumped to 103. I panicked at that point. I know that babies can run higher fevers than adults and still appear fine, but I worried about WHY it was happening. By the time we got to see the triage nurse in the ER, his fever hopped to 104.7. Seeing those numbers scared the ever loving shit out of me. With high fevers like that, there comes the possibility of seizures and all sorts of scary things. Meningitis, the flu, and any other terrifying disease ran through my mind. It was not a good feeling.

They dosed him with Motrin and we spent a few hours of observation in a room with two different nurses. One was really sweet and made Jack giggle and flirt. The other was an over energized, loud scary man. Jack doesn't have fear of any people in particular, but this nurse somewhat terrified him. He didn't cry at the sight of him, but he was certainly quiet and cautious. Whenever the man would touch him he would cry. I never, ever want to see anyone perform a temperature on my son the way this guy did. I understand that restraint isn't meant to hurt kids and is meant to keep them safe and being uncomfortable for a few seconds won't kill or scar Jack, but this guy was holding his little legs so tight that the man's arm was shaking. Jack wasn't fighting the thermometer and would have been happier if we held him down. I am pretty sure I will make the executive decision next time to restrain my child myself.

His diagnosis was a possible viral infection and the beginning of what appeared to possibly be an ear infection. A lot of "maybes" were tossed around including: chicken pox, hand foot and mouth disease, and the general "viral infection."

Jack's fever finally broke on Tuesday. We went to see our regular doctor and she diagnosed Jack with an ear infection. This is his fourth ear infection since Easter. Joy. We managed to make it through the first year without any major illnesses and now it seems like he is always battling ear infections. He doesn't even get them after being sick. He just gets them. The spots appeared on Wednesday. We first noticed them on his face because that was what was visible. We were out to lunch with Todd and noticed Jack had medium sized spots on his face. We got him home and they were all over his chest and back. I called the doc and got a vague chicken pox, roseola, heat rash diagnosis and to see how they develop.

We're still unsure of what they are. We stopped the antibiotics and are waiting to see if it is a reaction to the zithromax or if it's roseola. If it's not roseola, we don't know what it is.