he's got a fever (and sadly, a cowbell won't fix it)

poor baby rhysie. okay, so he's not a baby. in fact, dadgummit, i can't even say he's 3 1/2 anymore. he's much closer to 4 than that. ack! anyway, i'm not writing about that. rhys has a fever. and stomach pain. he's miserable. this started yesterday, around noon. he was suddenly heating up. he'd been happy and delightful up until the point that he started getting hot and having a tummy ache. i am fairly certain that what he is dealing with is the same thing that put him in the hospital dec 12/13 2005. at that time, he wasn't nearly so verbal as he is now, so i didn't know anything except i'd never heard him cry the way he was crying and i'd never seen him have a wild look in his eyes like a trapped wild animal. it was damned scary and probably ranks among the worst 2 days of my life. the first hospital said he had juvenile diabetes. he didn't. but we didn't find that out until later - at another hospital. he'd just had severe cramping and a fever which caused his blood sugar to rise.

anyway, now he can tell us what is going on - though, when he has a fever, it's hard to understand him b/c he's so sad and pitiful. i ended up sleeping in rhys' room. although, is it really sleeping when i was awake every time my body started into REM sleep? not so much. we're keeping rhys hydrated (he still has tears when he cries and is still peeing) with some traditional medicinal's children's tummy tea. we're doing our best to let the fever do the job that fevers are supposed to do (though last night i did give him some children's ibuprofen when it was 102.8 so that he could sleep a little better for a bit), and again around 6:00 am when it was 102 for the same reason. it's in the 102 range now, but it's easier to handle during the day. at 7:00 rob and i switched. i don't think rob got much solid sleep either, but he switched anyway and played mario with rhys while i went to bed and slept for a solid 3 hours!

as an aside, while up last night, i DID get to listen to more of Joshilyn Jackson's Between, Georgia. I bought and read it when it first came out, but i decided, after Joss saying that she had done the reading of the audiobook, that i wanted to get it. so i got it and it's WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL!!!!! it's so cool to get to hear the voices as she hears them and she does the most amazing job ever. you should go and get it from iTunes or wherever else you might get your audiobooks. or, if you don't like audiobooks, go and get the hardcover. it's not yet out in paperback. but i believe that gods in Alabama is!

mom took irene yesterday afternoon so that she could have some fun instead of not having quite so much fun here while i worried about rhys and tried to keep him happy. irene had a wonderful time. they planted beans and rhubarb and made a big fleece pillow together. ken made hamburgers and there were gummy bears for dessert. she was in heaven. it was just what she needed.

today she and rob are riding bikes by the Truckee River and geo-cache'ing. i printed out the geo-cache try-it from the Central New York Girl Scout Service Unit so that maybe they could do that together. we don't have any geo-cache try-its in our service unit (i'd link that, but it's a .pdf file). maybe that's what irene can do for her bronze award when she's a junior. we'll see. i might be putting the cart before the horse. anyway, hopefully they are having fun. rhys is dozing on and off, drinking his tea when i offer it, and sometimes being very sad.

hopefully he will be okay tomorrow b/c rob and i are supposed to have our very first night away from both kids on monday...if he's still sick tomorrow, we'll have to cancel b/c my cousin doesn't need to get her two boys infected w/whatever this is that rhys has.