Burning the midnight oil

One of my most priceless finds when we moved was a little place called Good Nite Pediatrics (GNP). It is an urgent care facility deemed soely for kids open only from 5 PM to 5 AM. The absolute best part of this little gem? My insurance treats it like a PCP, so rather than shelling out $50 or $100 for a REGULAR urgent care or hospital visit, I only pay $10. They do pretty much any "minor" thing...from stiches & mild breaks, to treating sick kids.

When I picked Jadyn up from preschool on Friday, I immediatly noticed that she felt warm. No one at the preschool noticed my daughter was running a 102°F temp, but that's probably because she was acting, looking, and eating completly normal. No one in our house is sick (knock on wood) at the moment, and Jadyn didn't even have so much as a sniffle.

I did as any responsible mother would do, and stopped by Walgreens on the way home to get some children's Motrin & Tylenol, in case we were out at home. Every 4 hours I alternated her meds, and her attitude was COMPLETLY normal. Other than the heat radiating from her tiny body and glossy eyes, you would never know that she had a fever. I was a little concerned, but her fever had been well maintained at 99° while on her meds, so I wasn't SO concerned as to rush her to the ER.

At 1:30 am, Jadyn woke up crying. I went into her room to cuddle with her, and immediatly brought her into our room to take her temperature. She was shaking and burning up...104° to be exact. I gave her more Motrin and woke Elmo to tell him that I was taking her to GNP because she was so hot. After I got her from her bed, Jadyn was fine...no crying, no runny nose, no coughing, NOTHING. She was shaking, but I knew that was a side effect from just waking up & her fever, however a 104° fever is nothing to mess around with, especially one stemmed from some unknown cause.

When we got to GNP, there was no one in the waiting room. We were seen right away. Even after 45 minutes of taking the Motrin, Jadyn's temp was still 103.7°. I told the Dr. that the fever came out of nowhere, and didn't know if maybe she had an ear infection or strep or what. He looked in her ears...nothing. He looked down her throat...nothing. They did a urine test...nothing. That's pretty much all the Dr. did. He didn't touch Jadyn at all. AT ALL.

I was pretty annoyed, to say the least. He attributed her fever to a virus...one that has no side effects other than a fever, and that it would pass. My instructions? Alternate Motrin & Tylenol every 3-4 hours. Great. I asked that they re-take her temperature before we left to make sure that it was going down, which they did. It had dropped to 102.9°, a much less scary number, in about 30 minutes.

We went home, and I spent the next 2 days "controlling" her fever with Motrin & Tylenol. Her behavior was still chipper and active, and aside for a decreased appetite & screaming when she woke up from sleeping, you would never have known she was sick. Yesterday, I gave her Motrin in the morning...and that was it. I'm happy to report that she has been fever free for over 24 hours now.

It was so odd!