So, ya’ll know that Lil’Chicano and thePinkDiva were both struck down by this nasty cold going around. Well, it hit GeekBoy hard last Sunday. I mean, he crashed before noon, and didn’t wake up til 6pm! went back to bed at 930pm. Then all day yesterday he complained that his neck hurt. It only got worse throughout the day. Finally, I googled his symptoms, and came up with either flu or meningitis. Yikes!! So I called my mom for a second opinion, and she was all, “Call his doctor, NOW!” and practically hung up on me so I could. Then the on-call doctor said to take him in to the ER right away to get checked out because of the neck pain.
So off to the ER we rushed, well… after he finished dinner that is. They semi-quarantined him in a Triage room until an exam room opened, then we got to wait in peace and comfort. Well, as comfortable as a hospital room can be that is.
At one point, he looked at me and said, “If I die when I am young, I will always love you.” Aww! Broke my heart to hear it… I assured him he would not be dieing anytime soon.
“How do you know?”
“Because that would hurt my heart oh so badly. And God knows that I could not handle it if you died. So He won’t do that to me, or to you.”
“Oh. Ok.” And with that I could see his shoulders straighten a little and his eyes perk up. About 5 minutes later, the doctor came in to see us.
The official diagnoses: Upper Respiratory Infection.
The unofficial diagnoses: The Doc said that anytime you get neck pain [in the back of the neck along the spine] along with the flu, it is most likely viral meningitis. But he did not want to do an spinal tap unless it was absolutely warranted. He said that GeekBoy looks good, and doesn’t have any other major indicators (rash,uncontrolled drooling, etc), so he really did not want to put the little guy through the pain of a spinal tap. He did say that if things got worse, bring him in for the tap. But, since the treatment for viral meningitis is simply tylenol, fluids, and rest… well… take him home, give him tylenol, fluids, and rest. Bring him back if a rash developed or a fever spiked out of control. Otherwise, call the Doc in the AM.
So, since he is on the healthy side of sick, he has avoided the pain of a tap. but we still have to become hand-washing nazis around here. Would you believe I ran out of purell? oh yes, DH will be picking some up on his way home from work.
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