I don't mind at all, I wish I had been more informed going into it. He had a REALLY bad headache (I mean, like, hitting his head a screaming) on Monday night. It just wouldn't go away, so I broke down and gave him Children's Motrin. He then fell asleep for 3 hours. Since then, (today's Friday) he's been sleeping or half-asleep most of the day. His temperature has been fluctuating between 99 - 103. A normal Flu would have only lasted a day or maybe 2, but since it was lasting longer, I thought it might be WNV, since he had recently gotten his first batch of mosquito bites, or maybe heat exhaustion. So I called our family doc. She said heat ex. doesn't last that long and it had the exact symptoms of WNV (which are: prolonged flu-like symptoms, W/O nausea/vomiting, headaches, tiredness, body aches, sometimes swollen or rash around the initial bite - DS didn't have that part). She thought I should go ahead and take him to the ER to get blood testing done, b/c they can't do blood work at the family practices, just to make sure that's what it was. So I considered it, and called the ER, to find out the cost of doing it. She said it would be upwards of $500. *gasp*! So I talked with the ER nurse for about a half hour and also the CO Virus Hotline for 1/2 hour. They both pretty much said that there's nothing the hospital can really do if he has it, except just monitor him (which I would be paying for). The ER woman was definatly urging me to bring him in, while the Virus Hotline guy was giving me actual facts as to where I should draw the line and warrent taking him in. He said just to watch the symptoms for things that are more serious or abnormal (ie, tremors, seizures, fever at 106 or higher, or at 105 for a long time, vomitting), pretty much things you would worry about if your child had the common flu.
So we are just keeping him home, letting him sleep, trying to get lots of fluids, salty liquids, & electrolytes into him. He's on day 4 now and I've heard it typically lasts through 5 days. So hopefully, we're coming near the end.
It's wild how that teeny little insect can have such a huge impact on a body, but I think I'll start being more diligent about putting on bug spray, though I'm not going to start using DEET. Fortunatly, our house doesn't have mosquitos, he got those bites in town.
HTH!
