Poor Biscuit ... and poor Mama

Biscuit has a sinus infection and tonsillitis.

And thanks to a doctor's appointment this morning, he now has a bottle of antibiotic to hopefully make him feel better.

But let's back up to Wednesday night.

I picked Biscuit up from day care. Jeff had a baseball game to cover, so Biscuit and I were on our own.

As soon as I picked him up, I could tell he wasn't feeling well. Normally, I walk into his classroom and stand and watch him until he notices me. Then he yells "MOM!" and comes running to meet me.

Wednesday, I walked into his class and stood and watched. Biscuit glanced up from the book he was looking at and gave me a half smile. "Hi, Mom," he said in almost a whisper.

He got up, put up the book and slowly walked over to me. He didn't jump into my arms. He didn't tell me he was happy to see me. He was just so not himself.

When we got home, I couldn't get Biscuit to eat very much. I even offered pancakes, and he wasn't interested.

After dinner, Biscuit asked if he could watch TV on my bed. He usually only gets to watch a couple of shows after his bath, but since he wasn't feeling well, I indulged him. I asked him if I could watch a show in the living room while he watched in the bedroom, and he said that was fine.

My plan was to let him watch TV until he fell asleep, then I'd take him up to his bed. So about 10 p.m., I went in to check on Biscuit. That was when the panic set in.

And I have to say, I don't usually panic. I spent several years working as a phlebotomist at two different hospitals, and after seeing what I saw there, I think I do a good job of keeping a level head about illness and injury.

But Biscuit freaked me out.

I walked into my bedroom and found Biscuit lying on the bed. His arms were twitching slightly, and I could tell he was asleep and dreaming. Except when I got closer, I realized that his eyes were wide open but not focused. He was staring at the ceiling, but he was completely out of it.

I reached over to touch his cheek to try to wake him up, and he was burning up with fever. Every terrible thing I had ever seen affect a child at either hospital came rushing back.

Is he having a seizure? Why isn't he moving? Why are his eyes open when it seems like he's asleep?

I finally got him awake, but as I was asking him if he was okay, his speech was nonsense. He also wasn't moving his head or neck, which is a symptom of meningitis.

Like I said, I'm not usually one who panics, but seeing him lying there like that was just too much.

I finally got him awake enough to talk to me coherently. I gave him some medicine for the fever and held him. He kept shifting around because he couldn't get settled. I'm guessing he was having body aches.

About 11 p.m., I could feel Biscuit's belly rumbling, so I took him to the bathroom. Within about 10 seconds of being in there, he threw up. And then he threw up again. And again. And again.

His head and cheeks still felt hot, but since he had thrown up after I gave him the fever-reducing medicine, I was stuck wondering if he had absorbed any of it or if he needed another dose.

I wanted desperately to call Jeff, but he was working, and I didn't want to disturb him.

Finally, about 11:45 p.m., I called the 24-hour on-call nurse at Biscuit's pediatrician's office. I got the call center at which a very nice man took down all my information, all the details about what was going on with Biscuit and my phone number. Then he said a nurse would call me back shortly.

About 10 minutes went by, and the nurse called. She was so nice and so indulgent. I told her I wasn't sure if I was overreacting or not, but I just wasn't sure what to do.

"Honey, it's your baby we're talking about," she said. "You can't ever overreact when it's about your baby."

I was on the phone with her for about 20 minutes. She asked me all kinds of questions and put all my fears at ease. 

Her: Has his temperature been 105 degrees or over?

Me: No. The highest it's been is 102.6.

Her: Can he move his head and neck without any restrictions?

Me: Yes.

Her: Do you know what a seizure looks like?

Me: Yes.

Her: Has he had one with his fever?

Me: He had some twitching, but it wasn't seizure twitching. When I walked into the room, his hands and arms were twitching.

Her: That happens sometimes with fevers. They cause body aches and restlessness.

After what seemed like 85,000 questions, she said it sounded like some kind of virus, and that the throwing up was probably from sinus drainage. She suggested we continue giving him fever-reducing medicine and said if his fever continued, we should see the doctor.

Yesterday morning, Biscuit still had a fever when he woke up. Fever = contagious, so he couldn't go to day care. Jeff was able to work from home, which helped a lot. The work I was doing that day had to be done at the office.

The funny thing is that Biscuit hasn't complained once. I keep asking him if his belly hurt or if his ears hurt or if his throat hurt, and every time, he says no. I've even tried to rephrase the question, like, "When you swallow water, does it hurt?" Still no complaints.

That brings us to today.

Biscuit still had a fever this morning. Every time we give him medicine, his fever goes down. But then almost exactly 4 hours later, his fever is back up. And since it's a holiday weekend, I figured we'd better take Biscuit to the doctor today. If anything happened over the weekend or on the holiday, it would probably mean an ER trip. Otherwise, we'd have to wait until Tuesday.

So we got to the doctor's office, and Jeff and I were taking turns reading books to Biscuit while we were waiting on the doctor. As soon as the doctor walked in, Biscuit said, "Are you the doctor?"

The doctor confirmed his identity. Then Biscuit said, "I'm Griffin. I'm a big boy."

"That's what I heard," said the doctor.

As he checked Biscuit out, he said two or three times, "He just doesn't act like he feels bad."

I told him other than not eating and being a little lethargic, Biscuit has still been happy and content.

The doctor said he was really surprised that Biscuit hadn't complained about his throat hurting. "It looks pretty bad," the doctor said.

I still want to share our vacation week, but as you can see, it's been a bit hectic at our house. We're going to get Biscuit feeling better. And I'll tell you more what we were up to last week.