Simply mom

My little boy has been generally healthy.  He had occasional sniffles, sporadic fever that accompanied his teething, and of course the bumps and bruises that comes with him being active, not to mention a boy.  Last night gave me a scare however.  He was fine all day until dinner time.  When he and his dad came in after an hour of playing in the park, he was fussy and refused to eat his dinner.  His dad gave him an early bath and got him ready for bed.  His dad said he felt warm though and when I checked his temp, it was 100.9.  We gave him some Tylenol, then rechecked it after 40 minutes.  His fever went up to 102.5.  It always concerns me when his fever goes that high so I called his pediatrician who recommended that we take him to the ER.  At the ER, his fever was 103.4, he was flush and very quiet.  If you know my son, he's rarely quiet.

They did a flu and strep test, which both came out negative.  They gave him some Motrin, which decreased his fever, then sent us home.  His fever was on and off throughout the night, and of course as a worried mom, I could not sleep.  He continued to have a fever until this evening when finally, it was gone.  Throughout the day though, all he ever wanted was to be held by mom.

As a healthcare professional, when you are looking at a patient exhibiting the symptoms that my son did, you do a full assessment and make treatment decisions from there.  When it's not your son or husband, you are not as worried.  Last night, I didn't feel like I had the training as a nurse.  I was just mom worried about my baby.  I had the presence of mind to give him medication, check his temperature, and call his pediatrician, but all the while, inside, I was panicking.  All I can think of was, what is happening with Sam?  Does he have an injury, is there a symptom that I missed.  Was it something that I did or did not do?  What do I do now?  When it comes to my son and his health, I am simply mom.  In fact, I probably panic more than my non-nurse counterparts.  

I am just glad he's a bit better now.  I hope the fever doesn't come back anymore and that it's just a 24-hour virus.  As for me, I think that I need to learn to be calmer when dealing with Sam's sickness.  Otherwise, i'll be a mess if he gets even sicker, God forbid.