ste_noni

Joe was gone again last night doing a big three star general/PR governor event. Around dinner time, Ellie told me her neck hurt. I didn't think anything of it because she's three and something always is hurting, although the neck is unusual. Anyway, just after I tucked her in, she started crying saying that her head hurt - on the inside, not the outside. I got her some water and a small piece of chocolate (hydration usually gets rid of most of my headaches and I figured some medicinal chocolate couldn't hurt) and she went to sleep. Then, about an hour later, I felt her and she was burning hot.

Of course, with neck pain and a fever, I was immediately thinking meningitis. Frisco was sleeping next to me and I didn't want to risk waking him to actually take her temperature, and of course Joe wasn't home yet, so I grabbed my phone and looked up what Dr. Sears has to say about meningitis. (I should add here that if you don't know Dr. Sears, he has an awesome website about when you should take your kid to the doctor. He is very laid back and I really like that.) Anyway, I look up meningitis and he lists 5 symptoms, of which Ellie had two. He then goes on to say that if your child has all five, run, don't walk, to the ER (which is extremely unusual for him) but if they only have 2-3, you should still call your doctor immediately.

Well, shit. I mean, meningitis is life threatening, but I didn't really think Ellie had it, but still. So, I got up which woke up Frisco. By now Joe was home and we took her temp. We did it three times and got wildly different readings - 104, 105, 99, 98. Weird, right? After talking about it for a bit we called the on call doctor (it was now midnight) but of course, being PR, no one answered or responded to our page. By then, Ellie's fever was almost completely gone.

This morning she seems a bit hot, but fine, and says her neck and head don't hurt anymore. I assume she's fine but I'm staying home with her just in case. We dropped Frisco off at daycare and went grocery shopping. She's now happily watching Dora on the computer. (And just turned to me and said, "Mommy, we forgot Frisco!" I think it's sweet that she actually misses him.) We will keep things low key today and hopefully she can go to school tomorrow. I assume she's fine and last night might not have been such a big deal if it hadn't happened in the middle of the night. Still, parenting is scary sometimes.

Oh, no word on either staying here or my grandfather. I'm sort of thankful that Ellie is sick so I can worry about her and not all that other stuff.