Our First Real Sickness Scare

It has been an interesting few days here in the Wagganer household. On Thursday, Steve picked Carter up from daycare, and was surprised to find out that Carter had been running a fever most of the day. When I got home from work, Carter looked terrible. We took his temperature, and it was 104! I bolted to the Internet, and our pediatrician's website said don't call until it is 105. We gave him some Tylenol and sent him to bed. Obviously, there was not much sleeping on my part that night.

On Friday, my mom came over to watch Carter. She said Carter was great all day, and didn't run a fever. When she dropped Carter off with me, I noticed he was running a low grade fever. By the time we got home, his temperature was 103 orally. So, off to the pediatrician we went. At the pediatrician, his temp was 104.5! They took some blood, gave him a catheter, and sent us home with a diagnosis of a viral infection. Great...we don't know what he has.

Three days worth of fluctuating fevers, bouts of diarrhea (one at Target in the shopping cart), a throwing up episode, tons of sleep (on Carter's part), non-stop crying, and severe crankiness I thought he might be back to normal today. Boy was I wrong. After an hour and a half at daycare, I got a phone call that Carter had not stopped crying since we dropped him off. So, off I go to get him and head back to the pediatrician. When I pick him up from daycare, they tell me he has a rash all over his body. My first thought was that he had chicken pox because he just had the vaccine this past Wednesday.

When we got to the pediatrician, of course we have to wait in the room for about 30 minutes. All Carter wants to do is "down" and "go" as he points to the door. Then comes the crying. I want to pull out my hair by the time the doctor arrives. She looks at him briefly and says its a common case of roseola. Roseola is a common childhood illness that begins with three days of high fevers, then the child breaks into a rash. The good news is that the rash is not itchy. The bad news that my child now looks like a strawberry. No professional pictures for his first birthday yet! Carter will be just fine and can go back to daycare Wednesday. It's nice to know that everything will be ok after a few days of craziness. Below are some pictures we took of his rash tonight.