I love being a Dad. I tell my children regularly (and every June) that being their Dad makes every day Father's Day.
Riley has been struggling the past few days. He hit a downward spiral this morning when his fever stopped responding to the Tylenol and he lost his appetite. A quick call to the pediatrician after reading a temperature of 101.4 confirmed the best thing to do was take him to the Emergency Room. It was a relatively short stay for us - mostly because Riley's fever had climbed to 102.5 by the time we arrived - they took us right back and began running tests on him.
They didn't want us to give him Motrin because he's too young - 11 weeks at this point - but he weighs 16 pounds (!), which is what Stevie weighed at around five months. So they decided Riley could have some Motrin after all. It worked on his fever, but because his white blood count was still high and he has a nasty cough, they decided to prescribe an antibiotic to be safe. I'm not crazy about taking any medicine you don't absolutely have to take. But they couldn't locate the source of the infection, even though he has all the symptoms of battling one. The next step to isolate it was a spinal tap - that's when I asked for options. Option number one was treat the unidentified infection with a mild antibiotic. So we did that.
Here's a shot of Riley Cooper after the Motrin had kicked in and he'd had a little to eat:
He has that look on his face, as if to say "Hey! How 'bout some more of that food!" He's sleeping pretty good right now. So are Emma and Stevie. Mom and Dad are about to join them.
Kudos to the Pediatrics ER at Chippenham Hospital in Richmond. Those folks were great.
Everyday is Father's Day - today especially.
:{> Andy