Plans? Out the window. Having a child now, I see how I cannot make plans that are penned; they must remain in pencil. Friday, the last day of school before the Christmas break, I got a call from Temple Chai telling me to come pick up my fevery child. I was really looking forward to enjoying that last day with the students and then doing a wee bit of Christmas shopping. Nope. However, being with her and comforting her was definitely more rewarding and necessary!
Saturday rolls around and my plans were of course cancelled for the day, and Tatum decided to turn her fever into vomiting, fussiness, and more fever. This led me to call the Dr. and get her in to check for something more serious. So we waited. And waited. And waited….Of course I forgot to bring her armory of toys so first, let’s try Dr. Seuss.
That lasted about 5 minutes. Then I searched the office for something to play with. Swabs, cotton balls and sanitizer dispensers did not cut it. Cups! Oh joy. 
We made confetti out of one cup and she put this in and out of the other cup. Then we nested them inside each other. Brilliant! Finally, Dr. came in and checked her out. Just a fever and nothing else. The rest of the day, she held nothing down, so I tried giving her some Gatorade and this helped her sleep.
Sunday, the fever subsided for a bit, but, she was just non-stop fussy. I hoped she could go to Temple Chai on Monday for just a few hours so I could get to my dentist appointment. When I put her down for bed, she seemed pretty fine. Had a small dinner and was stable. Then, about 8:30, I heard her cry just a bit, and I had this gut feeling something was wrong. Yep…the bed was soaked with the contents of her stomach. And…it was all over her. NO fever though.
The next morning, she was feverless and seemed pretty happy. I took her in to Temple Chai, and no less than an hour later they called and said she had a 99.3 fever. What!? So, no dentist. When I brought her home, she was so warm and her temp soared to 103.7! EEK! Dr. said it was just a virus that needed to work itself out. This little Tot was miserable. She wanted to be held, then not held; wanted to bed, then no bed. Nothing made her stop crying in between the coughing bouts. It was miserable…for her too! By the end of the day, I was exhausted and realized that this Christmas was not going to be the same.
It’s Tuesday now, Christmas Eve, and I realized something. If this would have happened while I was in school, I would not have been able to take off this much work…it was a blessing in timing. Plus, she is going to be better by Christmas and for the rest of the break. God has great timing. Currently, after no Tylenol for 3 hours, she is feverless and emptying her toy basket, intermittently checking to see if I’m right here.
Will it be over now? No matter what, I know that this little sweet girl is worth all the hours of worrying, sleepless nights, medicine questions, frustrating unworkable thermometers, sticky Tylenol droppers all over the place, Coti eating her peas, broken plans, smelly sheets and liners, interrupted phone calls and texts etc…
James, after riding 100 miles with Levi on “Tour de Bakery” is thrilled to be home!
