Our sick little buddy

Henry was VERY sick for about a week and it was awful. It all started on a Thursday afternoon when he was playing at his Auntie Jennie's house and she discovered he had a low-grade fever. I was just told at daycare that morning that influenza A made its way to daycare. But, I was cautiously optimistic because it was such a low-grade fever. Well, after listening to him cough all night long, he woke up Friday morning with a crazy high fever. I took him to the doctor right away assuming he had influenza. His test came back negative, BUT he did have an ear infection (GRRRRR!). So the doc prescribed ear drops (since he has tubes, no oral antibiotic). He woke up again Saturday morning with another crazy high fever. So we called the same doc we saw Friday and she assured Tom that his lungs sounded fine and it was most likely a virus that was causing his high fever. We continued to pump him full of tylenol/motrin to keep him somewhat content (but he was NOT content- super cranky!). Sunday morning he woke with an even higher fever than the past few days. We loaded him in the car and headed for the emergency room. There, they tested him for influenza A again (the ER doc that he looked just like a "flu" kid), RSV, and did a chest x-ray (anyone ever watch their young child get an x-ray? it was awful!). He had some clouding on his x-ray but the doc wasn't sure if it was pneumonia or a virus. She treated him for pneumonia with an antibiotic (his ear infection wasn't cleared up at this point so the antibiotic would at least clear that up) and nebulizer treatments. Meanwhile, Tom has to leave for Chicago on Sunday night. I'm sobbing because Henry's breathing sounded so terrible and I didn't know if we should bring him back to the ER or not. I called my mom, of course (because who else do you call when life throws you a curve ball but your mom?!?!) and she headed my way to help me as I didn't want to be alone with Henry when he was so sick. By Wednesday morning, we was still running a temp (this is seven straight days of a fever) so I brought him back to the doctor. This time we actually got to see our beloved pediatrician. He took one look at him and said, "I'm pretty sure I know what he has." After checking him over, he said he was some specific virus (forgot the name of it!!) that lasted 5-7 days and it came with high fever, cough, red, puffy eyes, no appetite (he hadn't eaten a thing this whole time other than a bottle of milk in the morning) and chest congestion. Sure enough, I took Henry home after his appointment and he began to perk up. It took another couple of days to have our Henry back but we were sure happy when he arrived!!!! Phew . . . long post covering a VERY LONG week!!!