In eighth grade, three of my cousins came to live with us for a year. My cousin, Meagan, and I had always had a pretty unique, sisterly kind of bond even before she came to stay, so having her there for a year was like having a real sister for a time. We laughed, we fought, she took my clothes…
One thing Meagan and I always conspired to do together was try to get sick at the same time. If either one of us started to feel bad, we would drink out of the same cup, chew each other’s gum (I know, gross), cough in each other’s face in an attempt to both end up sick at the same time so we could stay home from school together.
It worked more times than it didn’t.
This is the part where you start to pity my mom.
One of the times we did this compeltely backfired when we both ended up with the nastiest case of strep throat imaginable. We were not enjoying our time off together. In fact, we kind of thought we were dying together.
We ran such high fevers that my mom had a mild freak out and we all trekked to the doctor, Meagan and I moaning the entire way there. Her fever was in the high 105’s, mine was in the 104’s. And we had done this to one another.
So maybe it’s a bit of cosmic payback that I have children who run fevers that settle in the rafters. I dunno, but last night as I cradled my daughter’s feverish body, her temp measured 105.5. Cue freaking out. Cold bath, cool rag on the forehead, medicine. All of it worked together to bring her fever down to…
103.5.
Not good enough. More medicine, another cold rag and a bit of prayer seemed to help. I laid down with her in bed, her little body all shaky and achy. “Mom,” she croaked. “I had a scary dream.”
“What was your dream?”
“I dreamed that I was dying.”
Cue double freak out. Poor, sweet baby girl.
We prayed and she quickly fell asleep. When I checked on her about an hour and a half later, the fever had broken. Of course she woke up at 3:00 hot again. She snuggled up next to me in bed and it felt like spooning a radiator. She talked in her sleep and I held her hot little hand. Together we weathered a long, fitful night.
This morning her fever is low and her eyes less glassy.
And this Mama, though exhausted, is quite relieved.
I also feel the need to apologize to my mom for giving her multiple heart attacks over the years when I spiked high fevers. So I guess this is where some of the grey hair comes from?
Anybody else have kids who like to run super high fevers?
Isn’t it amazing how different our bodies really are? None of mine have ever been prone to super high fevers. The only time any of them have ever run what I call a high fever is when they had the flu. Even then, it was in the 102-103 range. When Rachel did have the flu at 3, and ran fever up to 103 she couldn’t lift her little body up off the bed. It broke my heart. I can’t imagine what 105 would do to her. She’s made it through ear infections, strep, cold, etc. with either very little fever (99-100) or none at all. Same with Megan. She had the flu 4 years ago. I had to help her walk into the doctors office. It was awful. Still her fever was “only” in the 103’s, but I guess for an adult, that is high.
I hope Miss Tia gets better soon!
She is feeling much better today. Her fever is low grade and she’s much perkier. Tia and Sloan are my high fever kids. Landon has actually never run much of a temp. I can’t remember the last time he had a fever, but I know he’s never run more than a low grade one. They’re all different, for sure. 🙂
Precious Tia. 🙁
So did your mom *know* you and your cousin were doing that to/for each other? Before today, I mean?
I think she was on to us before we eventually told her. 🙂
I have 2 wild grey hairs named Kelli and Meagan!!!
Ahem…
Sorry ’bout that. 😉
Fevers don’t concern me very often as I know their purpose. We rarely medicate to relieve them as, again, they are serving a purpose. That said, the last sickness at our house had our two year old registering the highest fever we had seen with him yet…104.5. I have to admit, much higher and I’m not sure how calm I would have remained. But, the thing that got me most worked up were the hallucinations that accompanied the fever. SCARY! I later read that hallucinating with fevers, especially in children, is not all that uncommon but I’m hoping it isn’t a scenario that repeats itself ever in our house!
Hoping fevers and feeling bad get to leaving you all alone quickly.
Yes. Sloan’s had fever induced hallucinations before and Tia was crazy out of it last night. She talked in her sleep and at one point when the fever was highest she was talking to me but not looking at me. Freaked me out. I’m not a fan of high fevers…
Driving to Georgia trying not to crack up out loud at “spooning a radiator” because I don’t want to explain to my younger passengers why that’s so funny.
But on the serious side, none of mine run high fevers. But Kristin once spiked extremely quickly and had a febrile seizure that lasted 5minutes. You want to talk about freaking out. If I never have to witness ANY LIVING THING having a seizure EVER again, it will be too soon.
So glad she’s better and I sure hope we didn’t give you that virus. 🙁
I don’t think it was you. This was the full blown flu so my money’s on Kristen and her kids since they all came down with it the day after they left our house. Ha! 🙂