911, what's your emergency?

Little Ethan was quivering and could not stop shaking! His fever spiked and his little body was trying to fight off some sort of an infection. My little fighter, I was just so paralyzed seeing how much my son was suffering. My little angel did not give into this, he was being such a strong boy for his mommy even though his mommy was just aching inside.

I was awaken by Ethan's quivers at 3:30 this morning. At first, I thought that Ethan was cold because I had left the fan on when we went to bed. I brought Ethan's tiny body close to my chest and held him really tight. I thought that after five minutes of this, Ethan would just brake loose from me because my body is like an oven! Ethan continued to quiver feverishly. Not only that, Ethan clinched onto me so tight that I thought he was having a bad dream. My son just wanted for me to hold him close which was what I was doing. I had to wake daddy up to get him to hold Ethan so that I could call his pediatrician. The nurse came on the line and went through her list of questions. Ethan opened his eyes to look at me in a pleading way and my boy gave me a quick smile to let me know that he knows that he felt safe. My voice trembled as I continued to speak with the nurse but when I told her that I have to call 911 because I just did not want to take any chances with my baby. Ethan was alert but his heart beat was racing, heavy breathing, and he was still quivering!

"911, what is your emergency?" I told the voice on the receiving end that my three year old son is having labored breathing, quivering, and his heart was beating really fast! I continued to inform him that I was sick and Ethan's been sick but this is the first time for me to see him like this. Yes, Ethan was alert and responding to our voices. The gentleman's voice was really reassuring...he advised that the EMS was on their way and gave me a set of instructions to follow. If Ethan should vomit, I have to turn him to his side. I needed to go and turn on the front porch light, wait for the EMS folks and have all of Ethan's medications available.

The EMS folks said that Ethan was just trying to fight off an infection, his body was just reacting to this fever. They recommended for me to monitor Ethan because based on their examination of my baby, Ethan was not having any difficulties with his breathing and his lungs sounded clear. They said besides his upper respiratory congestion, I just have to let this fever break. Now, they said that if I still did not feel that Ethan was getting better, they said to call them back. They also recommended that if we were to take Ethan to the emergency, to take him to Loudoun Hospital rather than Fairoaks. They said that at Loudoun, their is a whole wing that's specially dedicated to pediatrics.

It's 10:45 am and my baby is resting. He got to see his daddy go to work and his sister go to school and right at 8:30, he fell asleep while I was holding him. I contacted Ethan's doctor and the nurse said that if Ethan's fever does not break by tomorrow, to bring him in. I will watch how my boy is today...but more than likely, I'll be taking my son in to see his doctor. Van said for my peace of mind, he said to take Ethan in today.