Last Sunday morning, Aveline and I were over at Kate's house to celebrate the coming of our friend's (Alison's) third little boy. Elsa came down with a pretty runny nose the day before, and I could tell she was feeling under the weather Sunday morning, but because Jarrett had sound duty, they did not really have the option of staying home from church. So I dosed Elsa with some ibuprofen, and we went our separate ways.
A couple of hours later, Kate got a call from Tim saying Jarrett was headed to the emergency room with Elsa and that he had been trying to get a hold of me. I, of course, immediately called Jarrett, and he said that he had dropped Elsa off at Sunday school, but that they had come out to get him in the middle of the service because Elsa was not doing well. She was burning up, so Jarrett took her home and took her temperature, and it was 104.2. Obviously this caused him some concern, and everything he read in our books and online said to seek medical attention, so that is what he did. We decided that we would wait until they were through triage and in a room before I headed down, just to see what was going on and to avoid possibly exposing Avie to any unnecessary germs in the waiting room.
We had several phone calls back and forth, and in the meantime both ear infection and strep throat were ruled out. Elsa even got on the phone at one point to tell me about her "beautiful outfit" (the hospital gown, which the nurse let her take home), and I overheard a nurse in the background, setting up a Curious George movie for her. I had headed home from the baby shower and decided to pick up some food for Jarrett and go ahead and head to the hospital. By the time I got there, we were awaiting results of a urine sample to rule out a urinary tract infection. Elsa was still watching her movie, and had already seemed to have made friends with all the nurses and doctors who came in. After some waiting, we found out that she did not have a UTI either. So it was pretty much decided that she must just have some random virus, and they did not seem too concerned. They just told us to continue to use ibuprofen/acetametaphen to help keep her comfortable, but to otherwise just let it run its course unless things got worse. Elsa did a great job. She was not thrilled with getting her blood pressure taken while I was there (she had to have this done several times and I think was growing tired of it), but overall Jarrett said she was a real trooper.
Elsa seemed pretty chipper at the latter end of our time at the hospital, but then her fever spiked again once we were home, and she was just miserable. It is really difficult seeing your little one so sad and sick, shaking with the chills and wanting to do nothing but curl up in a favorite fleece blanket. It was a good reminder to me that our little one is still only three years old, even though sometimes she seems so much older. And that she still needs her mommy and daddy something fierce.
Monday was a recovery day. Elsa still ran a slight fever (never really going over 100 degrees), so we lounged around on the couch and watched a lot of television. But now she is pretty much back to her old self again -- lots of energy, with just a bit of a runny nose left as a reminder. We are so thankful this Thanksgiving that her sickness was not something greater.
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