What's with the fevers??

Luke came home Thursday from school with a fever. And while that's not too big of a deal in and of itself, I had to shake my head when, after his nap that afternoon, the fever had climbed to a whopping 103.4! My, my......my kids just have this thing for HIGH fevers, it seems. When I asked him if he felt sick anywhere, he said "my thwoat feels sick." So, we changed him into jammies, got him cozy on the couch with a video and made sure he rested. Motrin helped too! Once the Motrin kicked in, he was a different kid...happy...talkative, playful. Yay!
Friday morning he did well, as long as the Motrin was still on-board. We even got to go play at the park for a little while and he was happy to run, climb and swing. He didn't feel warm, so I figured the fever was a fluke. BUT....much to my surprise and concern, he awoke yet again from his nap with bright pink cheeks, bloodshot eyes and a fever again of 103.9! I peeked at his throat with a flashlight and when I saw white splotches back there, I was on the phone with the pediatricians office quickly. To my amazement (and a lot of great timing!) I was able to schedule a last-minute appointment with a doctor who works with Dr. Mailander at 4:20, so off we traipsed to the doctor's office.

Poor Lukey was SO, SO, SO hot and just felt all-around miserable. He cried softly in the car on the way over (which is so unlike him!) and clung to my side, resting his head on my leg while we checked in. I haven't seen him feel so badly in quite some time! They did a quick strep culture, which came back negative, but with the fever so high and the long weekend approaching, the doctor opted to treat him with antibiotics rather than risk us needing a trip to Urgent Care over the weekend. (Which of-course I was thankful for, since our last urgent care visit was so horrible!)

Dinner time came and went, he got his first dose of the antibiotic and he appeared to be feeling better as long as he had plenty of ibuprofen in his system. But silly Mommy and Daddy put him to bed and neglected to remember that he was due for more ibuprofen around 10pm. At 11:15 last night, just a short time after we both had gone to bed ourselves, we were awakened by frantic cries from Luke's room. I ran down the hall to him knowing that that particular cry wasn't a normal one and found my sweet boy literally BURNING UP in his bed. He was a little dazed and frantic...almost like he wasn't fully awake yet, but he was screaming. I got him to calm down and once I took his temperature it revealed a heart-stopping 104.8!!!! Yes...you read that right. 104.8!! I immediately called for Ty, stripped Luke down to his boxers, got cool compresses ready and more Motrin in him. Oh my goodness! I've never seen a fever that high in one of my kids!! I was so worried! We knew that we needed to cool him, but opted for no clothes, cool compresses under his arms and on his head and a Popsicle rather than a tempid bath in the middle of the night (we figured Ellie would wake up too, with all the commotion next to her room). And thankfully, after about a half hour, the Motrin began doing it's job and the cooling measures began to work. His temp. dropped down to 103 and then I think to 101. Phew! I slept (if that's what you can call what I did) beside him for several hours to be sure that he was alright and THANKFULLY the rest of the night was much less eventful! We woke him near dawn for his next dose of the Motrin and by morning, he seemed much better. Still not 100% better, but willing to play and be silly with resting in between. But MY GOODNESS! What a scary kind of night! And really.....what's with the fevers??! Just hoping that antibiotic kicks whatever it is that's ailing him!