The kid was a trouper though, though it was easy to tell when the fever-reducing medicine was wearing off. It was like he would start melting, like he was too tired to move one more step.
The day after we came home, I worked from home to stay with him and took him to the doctor. And I didn't give him any medicine all day. It sounds mean, but I wanted his fever to be at full force when we went so they could see how bad it was.
His fever was high, but he was still in good spirits. I think he asked the doctor 8,431 questions. And the doctor got a good laugh out of it. They did a strep test, which was negative. And he said his lungs didn't sound too bad, but he decided to administer a nebulizer treatment to see if that would shake anything in his lungs loose.
It amused Sawyer and me. The nurse actually told me to take a picture of him so he could see what he looked like.
I made a video, hoping he could see the mist. I told him he was puffing steam, just like Thomas. But I really wanted him to say, "Luke, I am your father."
After the treatment, the doc said his lungs still didn't sound too bad, so he guessed it was a virus. He told us the fever should break in 24 hours or so and to come back if it didn't or if his cough got worse.
The darn fever hung around more than 2 full days longer. The cough got worse. The at-home, incredibly expensive inhaler treatments didn't help. His cough was so bad that it was waking him up in tears every night, which then woke me up. Sometimes I could coax him back to sleep. Sometimes we watched TV and ate a popsicle … the only thing that seemed to combat the cough and the fever.
After three days at home with him, I was going stir-crazy. The one saving grace was that he was too sick to misbehave and be annoying. It was actually a little like reverting to his 18-month-old self. He was quieter, cuddlier and way calmer. I hated that he was sick, but the break from his normal, energized self was kind of nice.
I finally decided to film some evidence for our return trip to the doctor.
After another weekend of little sleep and major coughing, we returned to the doctor. This time, his lungs sounded worse. Musical, I think, was the word the doctor used. He decided that he had walking pneumonia.
So we picked up our antibiotic, and after a few doses, sent him back to school! He's had some rough bouts of illness (the time all three of us had food poisoning, though Sawyer recovered the quickest … and the time he had pink eye and a nasty virus/cold that I got and it seemingly lasted forever) but this may have been the longest stretch that he really acted sick. And thankfully, with that lovely antibiotic, he was back to his normal self in a couple days.
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