And Then Our Luck Ran Out

When our luck ran out, it ran out abruptly.

Our charmed visit to Illinois took a turn for the disastrous in the middle of Saturday night.  I suppose it was really Sunday morning, if you want to be technical.  But then, I'm not particularly good at being technical that time of night.

Kathleen woke, frantic and sick, a little after one.  She was up the rest of the night, crying and vomiting, before falling into a restless sleep just before six.  We carefully plied her with sips of ginger ale, a couple popsicles, and more than a handful of Disney movies the next day.

When she was vomiting again on Monday morning we decided to take her into the ER to be checked out.  (We'd called Tricare to see if we could take her to a pediatrician in the area, but since there weren't any pediatricians in the Tricare network in our area, they suggested we take her to the ER.)  Kathleen was a trooper at the ER, even giving some blood without much complaint.  In fact, she seemed to perk up while she was out.  The doctor at the ER reported that it was probably just a virus and that we should give her lots of fluids and let her eat whatever she wanted.  Her blood counts were fine.  She wasn't running a temperature.  She seemed pretty cheery, all things considered.  If she vomited again, we'd have to bring her back to the hospital.  But they thought things looked good.  We sighed with relief.

Only, our relief was premature.  Although Kathleen did not throw up again, she woke the next morning with a fever.  She was weak and weepy, much more so than she'd been the day before.  And she seemed a little worse on Wednesday, even.  By Thursday morning we decided that, insurance or no, we'd take her to a pediatrician.  And so we did.

Good thing, too.  When we got her there Kathleen's temperature was over 103 degrees, even though we'd already given her tylenol.  Poor child!

The doctor (who was wonderful, by the way) said that she believed Kathleen had influenza.  She also had the beginning of an ear infection.  So the doctor sent us home with some Motrin and a prescription for an antibiotic.  We're just hoping that the medicine will work its magic -- healing our daughter's body and her sad little disposition.

Now we're just two days from leaving Illinois, and aside from that first day, all we've done is nurse a sick toddler.  Mercifully, no one else has gotten terribly sick.  Madeline has, thus far, evaded the influenza, suffering only from a nasty cold.  Mama and Daddy are weathering just fine, too.  So our luck could have been worse... but it could have been a lot better, too!