FluBeGone

Apperantly, my little man's internal thermostat is very touchy.   Change up one little thing in his body and watch out.  This being said....another hard fast rule that I should have already known but was pounded home last night (in the middle of the night) was Never Ever run out of Children's Tylenol...especaially before bedtime.

 

Here's the deal.   Yesterday, Andrew got his flu shot.   I gave him a dose of tylenol beforehand, because I know how I felt after my flu shot.  The shot location was nice and sore and I felt just not quite up to par the next day.  So I have his a dose, he got his shot, then I gave the tylenol to daycare and told them to use if needed.   They felt it was needed and he got his second dose that afternoon.    When I picked him up, he was a little fussy, but nothing too out of the ordinary.  So the sitter came and we were off to Spanish class. 

 

By the time we got home, you could tell he wasn't well.   He was pale and cranky and burning up.  He wouldn't eat dinner for the sitter and she even tried to lay him down for a while.  He had his "B" and his paci and wanted held only.   I went to give him his final dose of Tylenol before bed only to realize that even if I add a little water to the bottle and shook it up, I would only get a half  to three quarter of a dose.  So I gave him what we had, we "rock rock"-ed and he went to bed.  Now, I know that we are out of tylenol.  But I am thinking to myself.   It's only from the flu shot, he is not really sick.   He'll be fine once he sleeps a bit.  I checked on him later that evening, he was sound asleep, nice and cool and even a little sweaty and I thought "perfect, the fever broke".   And I really didn't give it another thought.

 

That is....  until I find him in my bed in the middle of night (Marc said he had been crying and brought him in - I must have been out of it).  He is again burning up.   Now, he's been aroudn for 20+ months, so fevers are not new and I feel that I am getting pretty good at knowing which ones I should be concerned about and which ones to let slide without whipping out the thermometer each time.   This was not a low grade fever, yet not a "wake-the-doctor" fever either.  But it definately was a "needs tylenol asap" fever before it becomes a "wake-the-doctor" fever.   So, in the middle of the night, I am searching the house for any little bit of tylenol we may have.  I knew our main bottle was empty, but often times we get samples through his pediatrician that get shoved into a diaper bag here or there.  Last thing I want to do is hit the drugstore at 2 in the morning.  Finally, I can't find anything, so I grab Andrew's prescription Tylenol with Codeine that he got last month from his surgury and decide at that point that Tylenol is Tylenol and little extra codeine couldn't hurt, right?   He got a dose, got to snuggle in our bed a little longer before I took him back to his own bed (after a little "rock rock").   And the kid slept until 9:30 this morning!!

 

Nice!  I was able to be up and showered, so stuff done and almost ready before he got up.  And the fever was gone.   He was still pretty pale and his eyes still looked, well, I am not sure how to describe it, but not 100% healthy.  But he was acting better and wanted breakfast, so I took that as a good sign.  I did got him in the tub this morning and I still stopped at the drugstore and got another dose of tylenol in him before daycare, but over all...I am hoping the flu shot effects are gone.