Understatement

Well that last sentence last night was the understatement of the century!  It was definitely a long night!  It started with Levi falling asleep on the sofa last night (see last post) and I picked him up and put him to bed.  At about 7.30pm I went in to check on him and he was hot; really hot.  That cooking hot that is a bit scary.  I took his ear temperature and it was 104.8F (40.5C).  I woke him to give him Ibuprofen and he came out and joined me on the couch again but drifting in and out of sleep.  The drug didn't help a whole lot.  He dropped a degree or so but nothing earth shattering.  By about 8.30pm he started getting a rash. 

I took a photo (the one above) and sent it to my brother.  I know that high temperature and rapidly evolving rash is a bad sign.  Jim called back almost immediately and told me to take him to the Royal Children's Hospital as quick as I could.  I told him that Levi didn't have a stiff neck or photo phobia and that the rash blanched to pressure (all good non-meningitis signs) but he said they could all be later signs and to still get him in there fast.

So I bundled him up (in a tiger rug) and went to tell Jo we were going.  She volunteered to drive us so I didn't have to find parking which was fabulous.  Then about 20 minutes and a few ignored red lights later we were in the hospital.  Levi was feeling achy but the temperature was coming down and the rash as well.  The doctor hadn't seen a rash like that before but he said that it wasn't meningitis and so I went home again.  Jim was still a bit nervous and so he said to keep an eye on him for a while into the night.  I stayed awake reading beside him until about 1am but he stabilized.

It is certainly a hard thing to approach Emergency rooms again after such a long time away from them.  It is hard to trust doctors in them when I don't know them.  I am able to stay calm and chill Levi out while we are in there but when we are back at home and he is peacefully sleeping again, I struggle to go to sleep; even after 1am.