The Horrible, Crappy, No Good Day

This day started off not too bad, but then took a turn for the worst, but then ended on a good note. It really all started on the wee hours of the morning on Thursday. Ethan had woken up just blabbing and doing this soft whining. He wasn't crying so we let him go back to sleep. Then again at 4 AM he woke up doing the same thing but this time louder. He normally does not do this in the middle of the night, let alone doing it twice so we knew something was wrong. Chris got up and checked on him, came back and told me he was burning up. He checked his temp and it was 101.9 so we gave him Tylenol and we all went back to sleep. The next morning he had his 15 month check up and his fever was down and he was back to normal. We chalked it up to just teething. The rest of the day went just fine and so did his sleeping on Thursday night. Friday we took him to daycare and started the normal routine. Then I got a phone call from his teacher telling me that he had a fever of 101.4 and he laid down on a mat and go to sleep! He never ever does this so I knew it was strange. Chris swung by and picked him up and took him home. I was able to get a dr. appt at 2:20 so I met Chris over there. In a nutshell, his temp had come back down again and they ran tests on flu and strep and it came back negative. Dr. Hansen just told us to treat the fever if it came back up with Tylenol. We assumed all was well so we packed up and still planned on going to Spartanburg for the weekend. Friday night his fever was back up again so we did gave him Tylenol and put him to bed. He slept decent and the next morning was hot again! His temp was only 100, which is low grade, and he was perky and talkative so we decided it was ok to go to Atlanta to the aquarium. He had a great day and was wonderful all day. He didn't even have a fever before we put him to bed. Then this morning it went down hill. We woke up to Ethan screaming at 2 AM. We thought it was his teeth so we gave him some teething tablets and Oragel and went back to bed. Surprisingly he also went back to sleep pretty easily. Then this morning Chris got up with Ethan while I caught a few more zzz's. I got out of bed at 8 AM to Chris telling me that Ethan didn't feel like eating much and was wanting to lay around and sleep. I picked him up and he was ON FIRE! I took his temp. and it was 105! I calmly freaked out, if there is such thing! We immediately threw some clothes on and headed to Mary Black urgent care near the house. They opened at 10 AM, in which we got in line for right when they opened and they were able to see us at 11 AM. Ethan was whining and just laying on my shoulder the entire hour. If you know this child, you know he does NOT just lay. He's very active and very friendly. Finally we got into triage, and then back into a patient room. After many tests, finger pricks, X-Rays, another hour, tears shed and prayers prayed from mom and dad, the dr. came back in and said "YOUR CHILD HAS PNEUMONIA." My eyes were probably the size of saucers and I just said, "Ok, what do we do?" All I could think about was that people can be seriously ill or die from this! He said it was very common in young children and is just treated with antibiotics. The first one is a LARGE shot and the rest of the week will be liquid in a syirnge. Jeez! I was just feeling sick to my stomach. My poor little man was so sick of nurses and doctors coming into the room. Every single time the door opened, he would just scream and cry and grab onto us for dear life. I felt like a Koala the way he was just wrapping his entire body around mine. We felt just awful for him. We had to lay him on his back as he's screaming so he could get one last prick, and then it was all over. We got him back home around 12:45 and he seemed to perk up a bit. He wanted to sit with Pawpaw and watch basketball. He would throw his hands up in the air like he was shooting a b-ball. Then he came down from his high and crashed, and burned. Chris laid down with him for about 2 hours or so and then we had to head home. It was already 4 PM and I was ready to get home and get back to some sort of normalcy. Since we've been home, he's gotten something to eat and drink, and more drugs administered, and his fever is down, for now. He was running around playing for about 2 hours. So, the day ended on a good note with Ethan smiling, talking and hugging us. Maybe thanking us for being the best parents we would be in a situation like this. It's definitely not the worst news we could have received and for that I am so grateful, but it's still no picnic. I am ready to put this day to an end. I'm going to have some dinner, maybe a nice bath and call it a day!