The past week

Having been relieved that the fever lasted only for a night and it was incident free, I assumed things would go the way of a regular virus. However, that was not to be. The past week was a long one and one I don't wish to have again. Of course, its all in perspective. Compared to the past, this was nothing. V started with a cough as I had said following his fever. He coughed way more than he had when he had had coughs previously. Not just that, he coughed several times during the day and a few times at night. He was exhausted, he had a difficult time following directions in school, his behavior was impacted and he got into trouble on the playground as well, even losing recess time on one of the days. He was miserable in the evenings and would go to bed by 7:30.
In the mornings, at 7:15 a.m. I would carry him out of bed to the bathroom, dress him up, put him on the table for breakfast. He would insist on going to school each day and he wasn't that sick that I could keep him home. It was miserable as the cough sounded like a whooping cough, he was fatigued and the nights weren't very smooth - in the sense that I caught some jerking and one time what seemed like a head drop through three nights. By Thursday, I was contemplating having his chest checked fearing the worst. He seemed a little better on Thursday evening and by Friday, though not quite himself, he got up early in the morning feeling hungry - this was a fantastic sign as he hadn't felt like doing anything - playing, drawing, eating; I would still be shoving the spinach goop down his throat and his daily banana. He didn't mind his daily quota of milk and yogurt but refused to eat his nuts which are really needed. Last night he slept again for twelve hours but he has woken up on his own - no school - no need to wake him up - and is enjoying his breakfast right now. He has a piano recital today which he has not practised for but we'll see how it goes.
Through all of this, he barely managed to do his homework every evening but his teacher has been very accomodating, giving us more time when we need it, not pushing him past his limits, letting him turn in some of the writing homework the following Monday and this has been the case from the beginning of the school year when the teacher voluntarily let me know that I could ask for more time whenever he needs it - that is such a comfortable feeling - to know that she will let him have it. At the same time, I have to be careful not to abuse that privilege and have him do the work whenever he can do it on time, which did happen the first two months of the school year until the projects got into a larger amount of writing.
One more good aspect of this past week was his starting with a social skills session with the school psychologist -it is with the intern but she is also good. He enjoyed the session, remembered to tell me about it and I hope this translates into various aspects of his interactions. This is the one area which is still my biggest concern - his interaction with his peers.
V continues to struggle in the area of Math - nowhere compared to even six months ago but the catch up seems a lot more daunting in this area. We just have to continue to take one step at a time and keep going.

Fever

After having been fever-free for 2.5 years, V got a fever last night. Through the day, I knew something was wrong. He was ultra tired, cranky, couldn't explain why and it was a weekend as well. At night he had this weird smell in his mouth - this was something that happened through his bad days earlier. He was yawning away at 8:30 and we went to bed. He had a restless sleep and at one point when he seemed more restless than he should be, I checked him out and discovered a hot body. That immediately puts me on high alert. The last time he had a full blown seizure - not a head drop or absence or anything else - was when he had fever. So I went and got Tylenol, gave it to him, even though it meant waking him up in his sleep. That sure worked wonders - the fever came down, he slept peacefully for a few hours. After a few hours, the fever seemed to creep up again and towards 6:00 a.m., he was again restless. So I gave him another dose; that certainly helped but he didn't go back to sleep. He felt fine and was up and about.
A really close friend of mine visited with her husband and son, who is about the same age. The boys played together and that must have tired him out. We had to do a bit of holiday shopping and he was really tired during that time, so much so that I came back to the car with him while my husband and daughter finished the shopping. He then was fine the rest of the evening; throughout the day there was no sign of the fever returning. He slept off like a flash. I need to see what tomorrow has in store for school. Hoping for the best as always.