emilio ruiz benton: March 2007

Monday, March 19, 2007

Emilio's Opinion on Fevers

Emilio's temperature returned to normal today and his energy level improved--in the video above he looks up from his book and offers his opinion on fevers and, perhaps, snowy days (the books's subject). Doctor Samayoa's nurse said we should continue to keep him on a diet of clear liquids, dry cereal, toast, rice and apple sauce and that we should come in to see the Doctor on Tuesday (we have an appointment at 4:45). Emilio's appetite has not been strong, but he has kept down what he has eaten; unfortunately, however, some of it has been leaving his system in other regrettable ways.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

102.8 (39.33)

Emilio didn't have much interest in sleeping on Thursday night, but finally nodded off after getting an early bottle of breakfast. When he woke up a few hours later, he was in a good mood, but soon threw up the milk. Not long after that, he threw up his breakfast and his energy seemed to diminish. He took an early nap and when Mari came home early from work with cold symptoms, she put a call in to Dr. Samayoa and I made a supermarket run for Pedialyte. Emilio imbided with enthusiasm and then the doctor called and said we shouldn't give him too much Pedialyte at one time. Emilio later threw up. We tried limiting him to one or two ounces an hour with some Pedialyte pops mixed in, but he continued to throw up throughout the night. Saturday his energy was low, but he kept his Pedialyte down, until about seven p.m., when some if it came back to us. He didn't have much of a fever until about midnight, when we got an oral thermometer read of 102.8 (39.33 Celsius). At that point he was extremely lethargic and we did our best to coax some more Pedialyte into him and gave him a 2nd dosis of children's Tylenol. After about an hour of web- and book-search after that, the fever had come down to 101-something and we administered more Pedialyte. Today's we've been pushing Pedialyte all day and earlier this afternoon we gave him some rice and dry cereal. Emilio is usually so full of life, it's heart-breaking to see him without the energy to walk, sit up or even turn the pages of a book (though from time to time he will rally--as in the clock-grabbing photo above). But he hasn't thrown up yet today, and the temperature has come down, so we're hoping we've seen the worst already. Tomorrow, we'll see what the doctor has to say.