On September 2nd we took him into the Dr. because he was acting extremely irritable, pulling at his ears and not sleeping. This generally indicates an ear infection but he hadn't had a cold or anything leading up to it so it kind of took me by surprise. The Dr. told me that he had a common viral infection that affects small children in the late summer/early fall months. I would later find out that it was another form of the virus you will learn about below. Just about the time he started to feel better he caught a cold on the 10th. I mean the nasty dark green snot can't breathe out of your nose kind of cold. The poor kid was absolutely miserable. The following Monday night he started to fever. This continued until Wednesday when I decided to take him in to make sure his ears were clear. Of course we left the Dr.'s office with no problems just a viral infection we couldn't do anything about. Thursday night was yet another sleepless night and the fever continued into Friday. We decided that we had better take him back in because the poor baby just wasn't feeling well at all. Sure enough there was an ear infection just waiting to grace us with it's presence 2 days after we had just been in to see the doctor. Jordan also had his flu shot that same day (I know I am a mean mom) - with how often this poor baby gets sick I don't want to chance going through that nightmare. We started his antibiotic that Friday the 18th. By Monday he was starting to seem a little happier and like things were finally on the mend. On Wednesday he was a pill all day for his Dad; that afternoon my sister watched him and said that he had cried for almost 2 hours straight and no matter what she tried she could not console him. I left a message with the pediatrician letting him know what was going on and he called in Omnicef thinking that the Amoxicillan wasn't working. By Thursday he was hardly eating and had started a new fever. After yet another sleepless Thursday night I called the Dr. to see what I should do. Jordan's fever was getting worse, and at this point eating was the last thing to do on his list of priorities. I finally went into the office and as the Dr. was looking at his throat he said "Oh...I think I know what happened. Have you ever heard of Herpangina?" Obviously while trying not to laugh my response was "nuh uh." "Yeah, it's a form of the Coxsackievirus (again trying to hold back laughter). He has sores all over in his mouth and it is a whole new virus aside from what he has just had. Watch for the signs of dehydration but it will just have to run it's course."
So I left the Dr.'s office with a child that had Herpangina Coxsackievirus. So this is the worst/funniest name I have ever heard in my life! It took everything I had not to burst into laughter while he was telling me all of this. Maybe it was named so poorly because of how bad it really is...all humor aside Friday was one of the hardest days of being a mom for me. Jordan drank maybe 15 ounces all day long and refused any kind of food. He would go through little spurts where he would scream and you could tell he just hurt so bad. I felt absolutely helpless. I was so scared that he was going to get dehydrated or that his fever would get too high and I wouldn't notice because he was so loaded up on Tylenol to try and help ease the pain from the sores in his mouth.
I am so lucky to have such a wonderful mother in-law. I talked to her on Friday night and I was so upset - I felt like I was doing everything wrong...he had been sick for almost a month and I just wanted him to feel better. She rushed right over and spent the rest of her Friday evening with me. Thank you Jeanine for the self-less person that you are!! You are such an amazing woman and a great Grandmother. We are all so blessed to have you.
I am also blessed to have such wonderful men in my life that live worthy and honor their priesthood so that they can bless our family in times of need. Paul came over and helped Rick give Jordan a blessing for the healing of the sick. I am so grateful to have this assurance as we watch our children go through these afflictions. The blessing was given last Thursday and while things got even worse after that - all day Friday I had a feeling that I needed to have faith that he would get better and everything was going to be okay. Sure enough yesterday was a night and day difference for us! By 11:00 a.m. Jordan had already surpassed his food intake from the day prior. He is happy and laughing again and I hope that he can go a little while without being sick!
Thanks to all of you for your help this past month - my mommy brought me dinner, work has let me miss a few days, and there are tons of others but this post is already a mile long! Here's to a HEALTHY winter!
