Life Ran Into Me

Sick girl

The girls had a long day and ended the night talking to their daddy. They were in such a good mood and hyper that it took them a long time to finally fall asleep. They fell asleep in my bed like usual. I was after them shortly. In the middle of the night I woke up  to check on them and seen that April was awake...just staring at me shaking. I reached to her to stroke her hair and asked what was wrong but she wouldn't tell me. She flinched.   I tried again. "What's wrong mama?" Reached out to her again and she flinched. She backed up looking terrified as if I was a stranger going to harm her. She tried to cry but it was weak as she let her energy go falling back on the bed. This was definitely throwing me off as to what's wrong with her. I turned on the lights to see more but she was already asleep again.. Or just closing her eyes I guess. "Ma ma" I called her and I reached to pick her up. She jumped. Her body felt like she'd been sitting in the sun for hours. She was burning up but the house was cool.. "Damnit" I said to myself. April getting a fever is the worst thing that can happen. She can't handle them and I can't see her have another seizure. I scrambled through every draw I had looking for the one thermometer that I had but had no luck finding it. "Wake up ma ma, you want some water?" I asked stroking her curly silky hair. It was a little damp from her sweating. "Yes" she tried her hardest to get the word out. Her voice was even weak.. I filled her cup up with cool water, gave it to her. I got a tea spoon full of kids Tylenol and made her swallow it. I checked Praise's forehead and chest to see if she was hot too but she was okay and sleeping peacefully. I turned on the ceiling fan and laid back down cuddling with her less than 5 minutes we both fell back asleep until she vomited all over me. It was so disgusting but that wasn't what was floating through my mind. The fact that I need to call 911 was. I cleaned myself up and packed our bag and got us dressed within the short 5 minutes the ambulance came. I knew we were leaving. It was fhe goal to actually. "My baby is running a fever. I don't even know her temperature because I can't find our thermometer. I tried to give her some Tylenol but she threw it up and the last time that she had a fever like this she fell into a seizure and I don't want that to happen again." They rolled the thermometer across her forehead and it came back as 104°. I'm so glad I randomly woke up. April still didn't want to open her eyes but she was definitely awake because she threw a fit that the paramedics touched her. So they carried Praise while I carried her to the truck. They were amused by the Christmas lights hung up in there as we took a quick ride speeding through traffic. Once we got there, we didn't get a room. "Emergency my ass" I guess. Shands always has this quality. We waited in the waiting room for about 30 minutes to be seen because there was only about 5 people working. Praise was in her own world looking through different books that the play area had while April laid on my chest burning up. "Stevens" the nurse called out. About to time I thought to myself. The nurse examined her, put our hospital bands on and sent us back into the waiting room. "I'm about to take him to St Vincent" a upset mother said to another. She was tired of waiting. As she was walking out the nurse stopped her and said "your room is available now you don't have to go" the mother insisted she was fed up. I felt that. "Okay well have a good night" she said shaking her head. "You can come this way" she said directing me to the room. Shortly a nurse came in to get information for our visit once again but it was the nurse that took care of April the night she had the seizure. She knew April and Praise by heart. "You gonna be okay sweet girl" she told her taking her vitals. You could tell she was from the hood with her frontal, tattoos that her uniform couldn't cover, her demeanour & her accent. But she was very professional which gave me comfort. I'm not racist one bit but I trust my and my babies' health in the hands of black people the most. "The nurse will be in here in a few to give her some motrin" she told me before leaving. We waited about 20 minutes longer before another nurse came in. She wasn't too interested to be working from the looks of it. "Hi mom" she said and introduced herself and what she was about to do in a monotone voice. Little did she know, April isn't the average medicine taking toddler. She hates doctors too. Whenever one touches her, she gets the strength of a wrestler. The nurse had a hard time sticking the medicine syringe in her mouth and trying to hold her down at the same time. "Do you need me to hold her down" I asked. "I got it" she said clutching April's cheeks giving her no choice but to swallow it. She made the noise of drowning. I didn't like the way she had to handle my baby but she had to. It was to help her. I comforted April and she slowly stopped crying. "So we're going to come back in a check on her in an hour to make sure the medicine is active okay" she said and left. I'm glad I came prepared. I plugged my charger into the wall and put my phone on it. "I stuck my head out of the door and caught the attention of the nearest doctor to give us blankets and a sheet. April wasn't allowed to have a blanket as it would keep her warm when the problem is she's already too warm. She I tucked her in the sheet and tucked praise in a blanket next to her and set the bed up to where they could sit up to watch tv while being laid back enough to sleep. I turned off the lights and tucked myself into another blanket sitting in a chair. I couldn't even sleep. A little over an hour goes by and the nurse comes back in to find that April's temperate didn't change one bit. We had to wait another 3 hours before she could get another dosage. Finally those 3 hours passed and she received more medicine. We waited another hour and her temperature still wouldn't go down.