Suddenly Sick

KC is my physically most fragile child.  He has gotten stronger over the years but he is always the one to freak me out.  He goes from being okay to deathly ill in the space of a heartbeat.  That is the thing that freaks me out.  It is like you have no time to assess, react, plan because he is just all of a sudden flat out horridly ill.

He and Lissa have had colds the past few days.  Noses running rivers, some coughing.  No temps.  Lessened appetite but nothing really horrible.  Sleeping pretty well at night, playing and schooling during the day.  I figured it was just a cold.  As much as I fret over my kids I also know that they are going to get sick.  And a certain amount of sickness is needed to actually build a body's immune system. So I don't keep them in a bubble. And I don't medicate at the drop of a hat.

But this afternoon all of a sudden at 2:30 KC started screaming that his ear was killing him.  No warnings.  Just all of a sudden the excruciating pain.  He is not a kid who feigns illness so Kirsty knew it was legit and called the Dr for a script.  She gave him childrens tylenol for the pain and he relaxed some.  It was a bit later that things got weird.  He must have spiked a fever because he stripped off his shirt and went to walk upstairs to put himself to bed (another big sign he was very ill--how many 6 year olds put themselves to bed in the afternoon?) but got all wobbly and woozy and she almost had to carry him upstairs.  She called me at work and I could hear the fear in her voice, could feel the metal taste of fear in my own mouth. Whenever he is sick, I know we both remember that he was preemie.  That he had "breathing incidents" as an infant.  That he almost stopped breathing twice.  She said he was sleeping in his bed and she was checking him.  He didn't feel unusually warm and his sleep seemed normal so she thought it best to let him have the rest.

I got home a bit after 4:30 and he was still sleeping.  He slept through supper and finally woke to have juice and toast and the antibiotic that the Dr prescribed.  He was low key all evening but seemed better.  But tonight, you better believe that little fellow is sleeping next to me--or i won't get any sleep at all!