Wednesday
(August 3rd) evening I noticed Matthew felt hot to the touch. I took his temperature and while I now don’t
remember what it was, it was elevated..
We held him back from camp on Thursday, and he still had fever, and so
Friday my wife took him to the pediatrician.
He had fever there too but no other symptoms, no strep throat, and so
they assumed it was just a viral infection.
They don’t give you anything for that any more. They don’t want people getting immune to
antibiotics, so they have reduce the usage.
They sent Matthew home without any prescription, just told to alternate
between children’s Tylenol and children’s Motrin to keep the fever down.
His
fever was somewhat under control, but Saturday night it skyrocketed to 103.7
degrees and my wife wanted to take him to the Emergency Room. I dissuaded her, arguing they’re not going to
do anything there either. I said that if
it reached 104 degrees than we would go.
It
came down and for most of Sunday it was reasonable, though above normal. Then Sunday afternoon it spiked up to 104.3,
and at that point we decided to go to the E-R.
At the hospital, Matthew again didn’t seem to have any other symptoms,
and the doctor was about to release us when on intuition he decided to send
Matthew for a chest x-ray. Well, x-ray
showed a good size pneumonia in his lower left lung, and so we got to the
bottom of it. He prescribed Matthew an
antibiotic.
Matthew’s
temperature was still going up and down, again spiking over 104 degrees, but
coming down. Today (Tuesday) he had a
follow-up with the pediatrician, and she now only heard the pneumonia in the
left lung, but said he developed it in his right lung as well. So she then doubled up on the antibiotic and
Matthew has to breathe with a nebulizer three times a day. Today the fever has been close to normal all
day. I think we’re over the hump, but I’m
still guarded.
Here’s
a picture of Matthew with his kangaroo nebulizer. LOL, they’ll do anything to make kids enjoy
their medical treatments.
Your
prayers for Matthew are certainly welcomed.
