Carson's First Emergency Room Visit

On Sunday evening, Carson got a bit of a fever. We gave him Tylenol and that killed it. Monday morning he was fine. But as the day wore on it came back. For dinner all we could get him to eat was some fresh fruit and by bedtime he was refusing liquids. He had a cool bath, but that didn't help either. In the end, with the Tylenol clearly not cutting it anymore, his refusal of fluids and some really scary numbers we started seeing on both the digital ear thermometer and the glass one, Travis and Carson went to the Emergency Room at about 11:15 last night. Carson had recieved his first MMR shot 10 days before so we figured that could be the reason since it fell within the 7 to 12 days the risks sheet the nurses always give you said.

Unfortunately, the ER doc thought the fever was too high for the MMR to be the likely culprit, although still possible. They did some blood testing and the poor guy got a catheter also for a urinalysis. The blood test showed an elevated white blood cell count, but apparently not enough for them to consider further testing. The urinalysis cultures take 24 to 48 hours to get results back, but the doctor wasn't worried since I guess his urine looked healthy. (Thank you to my parents for keeping me company on the phone while Travis was away with my sick baby!)

Today Carson woke up with still a really high fever and was just as completely comatose as the night before, but the Tylenol and ibuprofen that he's now taking alternately as perscribed is working because he felt much better when he got up from his morning nap. We also had to check in with Carson's pediatrician today. He didn't find anything additional physically wrong, so now we're just monitoring the fever and managing it with the meds. Hopefully it goes away and we won't have to do the next step of checking back in on Friday to move on with things like chest x-rays and so forth.

Anyway, it's been a bit of a tiring couple days - especially for Carson! Not that I'm wishing injury on my children, but I think I prefer how Avery got to his first ER visit (read about it here). That kind of thing I understand, I feel in control - and there aren't so many worries with. Brain-frying level fevers I do NOT understand and I feel so out of control! I might also add that I don't enjoy Carson being a month and a half younger than Avery was for his first time. I definitely could have wished for more time...

PS. That picture of Carson is from back on July 22nd. I felt the need to include a picture of my adorable subject and I just love his lips! So luscious.