Thanks for the medicine, medicine guy!

It's a good thing I married the DH I did, because I know so little about medical issues it's scary.

The toddler, ricocheting around the room like a pinball, knocked the baby really hard in the forehead last Saturday -- hard enough to give her a dent. A dent, not a bump. I freaked out and paged DH, who was on call and very busy.

Me: The baby has a dent. Is that bad?

DH: Um.... Is she acting normal?

Me: Well, yeah. She cried when it happened, but she's okay now.

DH: Put some ice on it if you're worried.

Me: But it's a dent. Not a bump. Doesn't that sound like a bad thing? Isn't a dent worse than a bump?

DH: Babies have soft heads. I'm sure she's fine and I'm sure the dent will, well, pop out. Just keep an eye on her.

After dinner that same night, I noticed she seemed warm. I took her temperature with the ear thermometer (which I don't entirely trust because her ears are too small for it to fit well) and got 100.2F. I took it with the forehead strip (which DH doesn't trust because it looks like a gumball machine prize) and got 101F. I took it under her arm and got 101.3F. I figured I could average the three results and avoid taking it rectally. (I have so far avoided taking anybody's temperature rectally, and I hope to maintain that streak.)

I paged him again.

Me: I know you're busy, so I'll make it quick. Can a concussion cause a fever?

DH: What? First put the crack pipe down, then tell me what's going on.

Me: The baby has a fever of 101. Could it be from the dent in her head?

DH: No. It's not from the dent in her head.

Me: Maybe her teeth? She has two on the bottom breaking through.

DH: That's a more likely possibility, though 101 sounds high for teething. [*Big audible sigh*] Give me a few minutes; I think I can break away. I'll come home and take a look at her.

He did and determined she had an ear infection, poor thing. He prescribed some Cephalexin, on the off chance it was bacterial. I piled the girls in the car to go pick it up from the drug store's drive-thru pharmacy. My toddler, being the very big helper that she is, repeated everything I said to the little squawk box and then after we got the stuff, as I was rolling up the window and about to drive off, she yelled, "Thanks for the medicine, medicine guy! We love you very much!"

LOL.

The baby took the Cephaluphogus reasonably well until yesterday, when a faint rash began to develop. At first I wasn't sure that's what it was -- it could have been the bad lighting in the room playing tricks on my bad eyes, or marks on her skin from being pressed against me while she nursed. But by 5pm, the rash had grown darker and spread all over her belly and back and, more faintly, onto her face.

I woke up my exhausted, post-call DH so he could look at it. He thought it looked like a drug reaction, but having been awake for nearly 36 hours and asleep for only 3, he decided we should go up to the after-hours clinic and have one of his more clear-headed colleagues check it out. Of course, that's what it turned out to be: My baby is allergic to an entire class of antibiotics. Great.

*Sigh!*

She's fine now. The dent popped back out and blossomed into a small but lovely purple bruise; she hasn't had a fever since Sunday; her bottom teeth have made it through the gum line; she's on a new antibiotic for her ear and the rash is almost completely gone. We're lucky her reaction wasn't worse.

What a crazy few days.

I have to laugh at my own ignorance -- can a concussion cause a fever? -- but really, it's such a relief to have DH around. Can you imagine me trying to take care of these girls without him? Lol. What a mess we'd be. ;-)


~RCH~