While mommy is away the viruses will play!

So last week I was out at the film plant. This plant is where we coat all of the medical imaging film and is located in Oregon. I won't say much about the run except to say that the days were long (14 hrs or more), the run was somewhat of a failure because of equipment issues, and I hate sleeping in hotel rooms. As if this isn't enough Keegan got sick.

Keegan has had many colds and one eye infection since he started daycare. To date he has been able to elude the dreaded ear infections. Well, I got a call from Lyle late Tuesday night (midnight central time) that Keegan had been screaming for the last hour or so and Lyle couldn't figure out what to do to make it better. We went through everything Lyle could try and he had tried it all. Finally he gave Keegan some Tylenol and let him sit up awake on the bed and play. For some reason Keegan would scream if Lyle laid him down but was fine sitting up. I felt bad that Lyle was having to deal with this because I know no matter how much I love Keegan, when he starts this incessant screaming it is really frustrating. He hasn't done this since he was a couple months old; even with the eye infection he was still a happy boy.

So of course this is happening while I am gone. Well, on Wednesday my mom calls Lyle and Lyle calls me. Apparently Keegan now has a fever of 102.8oF and is very unhappy. Lyle and I discuss and Lyle decides to give Keegan some Tylenol and watch him over the night. Next morning Lyle calls and says that Keegan is doing better; his temp is 100 something. Since Keegan still has a fever he has to stay home from day care; so Lyle is staying home from work. This really sucks because Lyle is a contractor and doesn't get paid for sick time. Keegan's little sickness is costing us literally hundreds of dollars. Unfortunately later in the day Keegan's fever shoots up again to over 102 so Lyle takes him into the doctor.

The doctor says that Keegan doesn't have an ear infection and his lungs are clear. So the doctor tells us to bring Keegan back in on Saturday if the Tylenol can't keep his fever under control. So Lyle has to stay home with Keegan on Friday; more money out the door. And poor Keegan is very unhappy, Keegan is not happy with anything. I get back Friday afternoon. Keegan's fever shoots up again on Friday night.

Back to the doctor's office at 8am on Saturday morning. I think this is an ungodly hour to be somewhere on a Saturday morning. Of course it doesn't matter much because we've been up since 5am dealing with an unhappy Keegan. Keegan doesn't really want to eat his bottle, he doesn't want to nap. Keegan needs someone holding and distracting him at all times or he lapses back into his screaming fits. By now we have figured out that the screaming fits start around the time the Tylenol is wearing off. Obviously something is hurting.

The doctor let's us know that Keegan now has an ear infection in both ears. Keegan gets put on antibiotics. So now Keegan is supposed to be taking either Tylenol or Motrin all day with antibiotics 3x a day. Keegan is still crabby and he still isn't really keen on his bottle (he'll eat his solids though). We figured out it must hurt his ears to suck on the bottle. Either way Sunday was another tough day; full of Keegan needing to be distracted until exhaustion and then put down for a nap. Saturday afternoon we went to the state fair and with all of the distractions there Keegan was pretty good; if not quit his jolly giggly self.

I guess in general it just sucked that poor Keegan had to go through all of that. It really sucked that poor Lyle had to deal with all of the crap alone. Of course it all had to happen while I was out on a business trip. To make matters more complicated all of this was going on while my parents were out of town camping; so Lyle couldn't go to them for help. The other thing that was going on was that Lyle was interviewing for new contracts (his contract is up at the end of the month). He still hasn't gotten his next contract; I am a little stressed about that but we will see what happens.

Hopefully today Keegan will feel better.