Less than twenty-four hours after watching Gracie dance wildly around the living room to her favorite ABBA songs, I am looking at a very sick little girl. Poor Grace is laying prone on our living room couch, half-heartedly watching the end of Pee Wee's Big Adventure, with her little mouth gaping open because she can't breathe through her nose, tears streaming down her face occasionally because she "is never gonna feel better!!" and her cheeks a rosy red color as a result of her fever which has been hovering between 102 and 104 all day long.
I can't even remember the last time Grace was sick. I know around this time last year, we had to take her in to Urgent Care on a Sunday afternoon because she was complaining of an earache (turns out she had a raging ear infection) but other than that, Grace is generally very healthy. I had a rough road with her from about the time she was six months old until she turned two--she had cold after cold and the colds always lead to ear infections and she had rotavirus two springs in a row. But then suddenly around age two, she stopped getting sick so often--in fact, she's only been sick a handful of times since then. She managed to build up a pretty tough immune system and thanks to that, she hasn't suffered from a lot of the illnesses her classmates at school have had to deal with because she was exposed to many of them in day care already.
And so, I'm feeling that unmistakable sense of panic that a parent feels when her child is sick and I had forgotten how terrible that feeling is. As soon as we got up this morning, I felt the compelling need to get Grace into the doctor ASAP, and when he told us that Grace doesn't have strep or any other infection and then dismissed us, I wanted to wrap myself around his leg as he walked out the door and beg him to DO SOMETHING TO HELP HER FEEL BETTER!!
Turns out, all she really wants is her mama. When we got home from the doctor, she just wanted to lay down next to me (or on top of me) and she pleaded with me to stay next to her all day. And that's just fine, because there's no way I'd let my little sickie out of my sight today anyway.
Surprising no one
9 years ago
2 comments:
I think I have a deficient mothering gene when it comes to sick kids. Sure, I nurture, I cuddle, but I must admit lacking much empathy -- unless they are really really bad I am usually feeling sorry for myself because of the extra work. And I almost never take them to the doctor when they're sick -- I figure we'll just get told what you did and it's not worth dragging them out.
Poor Grace, though! Sounds like she's really got a nasty bug. Hope it blows over fast.
I don't know...maybe I go overboard sometimes, and I think my reaction this time is due in part to raging hormones and the fact that Grace is NEVER sick and it's scary to me.
Anyhoo, after a LOOOOONG night involving vomit and lots of snot, the little one seems to be on the mend today. No more fever, and her appetite is back. Yay.
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