Very Sick Little Girl

November 20, 2014

Ally had the highest fever of her life – only 103 but very high for her.

I had been to the doctor with Becky, who has been very sick this Fall with a persistent and at times debilitating cough, and we went to grab lunch after the appointment. My cell phone rang and it was the school nurse.

Ally was in her office, crying, her head hurt and she doesn’t look very good, no fever, but I should probably come pick her up. This was at 2:12pm. School gets dismissed at 2:55 – I said I would be right there, and we left to go get her.  By the time I arrived at school 15 minutes later her fever had spiked to 102. I bundled her up and we headed home. I had planned to walk, but Ally was too feverish so I carried her the 4 blocks on my shoulders with her shivering the whole time. We got home and I took her temp again and it was 103. I called her pediatrician and they said to bring her in – I got an appointment for 5pm. Ally slept and thrashed and was burning up. I did give her Motrin and that helped after a while. Strep had been going around at school.  And her annual school choral concert was the next day, and she had a SOLO. But with a fever that high she could not go to school. At the doctor, the strep test was negative. Probably just a virus, keep her hydrated, lots of rest and keep up with the Motrin. If the fever rose over 104 call back and if it lasted for 4-5 days call back.

Ally was sick. I stayed home with her on Friday and Monday, then Becky on Tuesday, who took her back to the doctor, still just a virus, but by Tuesday Ally’s eyes were bloodshot, so we got a prescription for eye cream and were advised to keep her out of school since Thanksgiving was coming, it was a short week and she clearly was not back in good health.

It was a rough time for all of us. Ally was a trooper. She watched lots of TV – Spy Kids movies, and I watched Parent Trap with her – one of my favorite movies as a child, which she now loves. She had very little focus, but every day she did some reading and some math work. Her teacher said she should concentrate on getting better and refused to send homework home.

We left Wednesday (in a snow storm) for my parents’ house for Thanksgiving and she seemed better. But still not 100%.

I didn’t take many pictures during this period, but here are a few.

Working on math at the white board. I would make up problems for her to solve. We also opened up some of her birthday gifts and had fun – like with the 3-D pad of paper.

Happy as a clam snuggling with her Cloey on the couch.

Some old friends of ours from London came to Cambridge for a visit. Ally was to sick to join us for brunch, but we managed to get a picture of us moms in attendance – Lauren (London) in the back next to Becky, me, Hanh, Summer and Jenn.

I had been trying to pick out clothes for Ally for our big family photo shoot. The 3 of us were scheduled to have our picture taken on Sunday – right in the midst of Ally’s illness so we canceled that and I came up with plan B for our Holiday cards, which I got printed, address and returned addressed and arrived at our house 2 days before Thanksgiving! But – one morning Ally humored me for a bit a tried on clothes – I rigged up a pretend dressing room in her room.

In the end she wore something else – but it was fun for me for the 6 minutes she tried on clothes.

 

More couch time with Cloey, and for days Ally and I worked on the picture above in her coloring book, after 5 days we finally finished it!

Ally went back to school on Dec 1 – she missed 4 days of school and was out of commission for over a week.

The good news is she is all better now.