last night's scare

Hi everyone!

Boy did Hubby and I have a scare last night. Actually, more me than him since he’s always so calm in emergencies. You see, last Thursday, Sophie started having cough and colds so we went to her paediatrician on Saturday who gave her some meds. Since then, although her cough never went away, she would have on and off bouts of fever and colds.

Last night at home before Hubby and I left for a KFC meeting, Sophie seemed ok. Jovy had already given her the prescribed medicines earlier so she was her usual kulit and bibo self.

When we got home later, we shifted her to her usual place on our bed beside me. She was already sleeping and Hubby and I were starting to doze off when I suddenly noticed that she was shivering. Even when we put on a pair of socks, covered her body with 2 thick blankets, and embraced her to keep her warm, the shivering wouldn’t stop. We didn’t know why. I checked her temperature with our digital thermometer but it said 37.1 degrees.

I was already starting to panic so I told Hubby we needed to go to the hospital right away. We left around 11:45pm.

On the way, I noticed that although her neck and forehead felt hot, her lips and hands were very, very cold.  Her fingernails looked pale and her lips were darker than normal.  I was so scared! When I noticed those things and she began closing her eyes (yeah, I know she was sleepy), I would try to keep her awake by murmuring to her or putting my cheek beside her cheek. I didn’t want her to sleep because I thought if she did, well…you know (just think of the worst that could happen). All the while, I was hoping and praying that it wasn’t anything serious.  I was trying not to cry at the same time. 

At the hospital, we were attended to right away. The nurse asked me several questions over and over (I guess to check my consistency in answering because I was really, really panicking by then) while checking Sophie’s weight, height and temperature…which had reached 40.1 degrees! Waaaahhh! Within seconds, she called the paediatrician on duty who told her to give her an Adol suppository, which she did.

A while later, Sophie’s shivering stopped. Then she asked for “dede” which either means milk or water. From time to time, she would drink water then give us the bottle, then ask for it again, drink a bit, give it back, ask again, drink a bit...well, you get the picture. At least she was hydrating herself.  She also began to seem ok by babbling and pointing to things she wanted to hold or see.

The paediatrician came down after a while and looked at Sophie. One of the culprits was a white spot on one of the tonsils which she showed me. The other reason was because she was teething. Can you believe that at 16 months, Sophie still doesn’t have any teeth all! Late last year, she had already undergone some tests to find out if there was anything wrong which caused the delay, but everything looked normal.  The doctor then proceeded to prescribe 4 medicines (3 of which Sophie was already taking at home) which Hubby collected from the pharmacy.

After 30 minutes, Sophie’s temperature was checked. It had lowered to 38.9 degrees.

Half an hour later, it went up again to 40.1 degrees.

When it was checked again after some time, it went back to 38.9 degrees.

In between, the nurse would wipe her with wet pieces of gauze to lower her temperature.

Finally after we had spent almost 2 hours in the Emergency Room, the temperature went down to 37.7 degrees and the nurse said we could go home. I heaved a huge sigh of relief.

However, the nurse advised me to book an appointment with Sophie’s paediatrician today as a follow-up check-up…which we did before leaving the hospital at exactly 2am.

I had to go to work today, but thankfully when I told my manager that I planned to take the afternoon off, he understood.

When I called Jovy a few minutes ago, she said Sophie felt hot again and she was currently checking her temperature. Haaay!  I really hope and pray she will get better soon.  If I could take the pain away from her and be the one sick instead, I would. Kids look so helpless and pained when they’re not feeling well. Nakakaawa talaga tingnan. At least if the parent is sick, they can handle it better.