So... you may remember we've recently been sleep deprived and Rachel refuses to sleep in her crib with any blankets on.
Tuesday afternoon, daycare reported that Rachel had a bit of a cough that we might want to watch. Tuesday night at 10:30pm, she woke up crying. I went in, frustrated that she was already awake, to find her burning up with a bad fever. I brought her into our bed for the 3rd night in a row, sure we would never sleep without her in our bed again. We couldn't find our thermometer to measure her temperature, but decided she was too sick to attend school on Wed.
Now, we don't have any immediate family in the area. We have two cousins but they both work. We have no back up care option when daycare is not an option. These are the days when we wished so badly that a grandparent or sibling might live nearby. But instead one of us parents has to call in sick. It's a stressful thing. Jason has sick days and can get a substitute teacher... if and only if he is prepared for the upcoming day and could tell a sub what to do. I (Meggan) get 2 sick days per year and have used them up already. My first patient was at 7am and I did not bring any notes home so I did not have access to any patient's phone numbers to contact them. My receptionist started Wed at 8:30am.
After some discussion, it was decided that I would try to get patients' phone numbers but if I couldn't get through to people (which I couldn't) then I would have to take Rachel to work with me until I could cancel the remainder of my patients.
So we packed up toys, diapers, snacks, water, extra clothes, and children's tylenol and headed to work at 6:10am to treat my first few people. Rachel played on the floor beside my treatment bed while I treated my first few people. Any chance I had, I called the rest of my patients and canceled who I could. I saw three people and then left work. Aunt Cynthia was in town visiting from Virginia so she came over for a while to play and allow me to get a few things done at the house. Rachel was happy and energetic and playful, but had a funny cough now and then.
Wed night we started debating who might call in sick on Thursday. Neither of us wanted to. Jason had student presentations to hear and grade. I had patients that I had moved from Wed schedule to Thursday schedule and had a very busy Thursday planned.
Wed evening at 7:30pm Rachel had a temperature of 104F. We started her on medication right away and it brought her fever down. It also made her pass out. When she woke hours later, we gave her more medication. She was in our bed again, but seemed more sick.
Thursday morning she came to work with me. She slept on my back in her ergo carrier for nearly two hours, which have me the ability to treat 4 people relatively unscathed. I actually did an entirely thorough lumbar spine/pelvis assessment for a brand new client while Rachel slept on me. I was pretty impressed with myself, even though I am not entirely certain the patient thought it was the most professional visit. Rachel sat on my lap while I treated two more people's necks. She livened up a little and played while I treated one more person, and they were very sweet to take her offers of pretend pizza slices and carrot slices from her 'store'.
At 11:30am, managing to survive my morning and only cancel a few of my more labor intensive people, I dropped Rachel off with her car seat at Aunt Cynthia's and raced back to work for my next 10 patients. Aunt Cynthia did lunch, played and did more medication before Aunt Karen arrived in from California to save the day. Aunt Karen took Rachel home in her rental car and Rachel had a great nap.
Back at work, I was panicked. Rachel had seemed quite lethargic all morning and her fever raced back up as soon as her medication wore off. Jason and I were due to leave town Thurs night to go away and have Aunt Karen stay at home to watch her. Due to the recent lack of sleep and general craziness, our house was a mess and we were not very prepared for our trip.
I decided I could not leave town until I heard a doctor tell me that she would be ok. So we were able to get an appointment for her Thurs night at 7:30pm. We decided we would have Karen take Rachel to the doctor's, and we would start our 5 hour drive to Crested Butte. If Rachel's condition seemed more serious, we would turn around and come home.
... for those of you who read Karen Oliver's blog, read it...
I will continue the rest of this story from our perspective on the way to Crested Butte, and let family members who know Karen read her version of the weekend on her blog.
... to be continued...
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