Growing Up Gabriel & All About Amelia: Sickness and Strawberry Picking

We have been nervous a handful of times with the kids, and actually scared a couple of times. This one was one of those times and I will tell you about the other one in another blog. Gabriel got really sick this year. Ended up getting a really high fever. It would go so high that he had pretty significant light sensitivity. So much so that we had to draw all the blinds and he still had to wear sunglasses. Along with this, he started having actual knee joint pain. Just his right knee and it hurt to the point where he had trouble walking on it. He would walk on his tip toes with that leg. He had been sick for several days when we got him out of the bath one night and like we had done in the nights before, we took his temperature. It was normal and he was acting like he was never sick. We went ahead and gave him Ibuprofen just in case considering his history with this illness. About a 1/2 hour into his meds, he started screaming. He said that his eyes hurt and he couldn't open them. We took his temp, and just 1/2 hour from the last time we took it and it being normal, it was almost 104 degrees. So the the ER we went. Of coarse my brain goes right to Lyme Disease and I was freaking out! Poor Gabriel threw up all over himself and the van on the way to the hospital. We were both in such a sort of panic state of mind when we were getting him into the van, that Daddy didn't even have the sacred backpack that has EVERYTHING in it. Daddy and Gabriel were at the pediatric ER from 10pm until 3am if you can believe that. They gave Gabriel a heavy dose of Ibuprofen and he started feeling great again. He started really enjoying himself at the ER and even made a new friend. After nearly 5 hours at the ER, they were told that it was simply a virus and that we just had to keep doing what we were doing and let it take it's coarse.

Sick Gabriel the day before we took him to the ER

This was taken right after they checked into the ER. Very sick little man!

After he had his meds and now in a hospital gown because his clothes were now soaked with you know what. He and his little friend both were there for high fevers and both medicated and feeling pretty good at this point.

After many hours of waiting, finally in the room to see the doc

A couple of days after the ER.

I put on Thomas the Train so he could watch it while I could put Amelia down for her nap and put his car seat back together (after washing it) so we could go to the doctor. He was sitting watching it when I left him there. When I got back, this is what I saw. Poor little guy, not even Thomas the Train could keep him up!

So what does this have to do with strawberry picking?

Great question.....just timing really. But it is an extension of the story. Every year we go to the same family owned Strawberry Field to pick strawberry's. This year, the peak season ran early and a couple of weeks after Gabriel was fever free, he was still struggling a bit. To the point where the doc thought he might have had mono. The poor little guy was so tired, that he asked to just sit in the field after about 10 min of picking. He NEVER sits down during things like this. His knee was still bothering him to...still weird to me. Anyway, we had a great time. This was Amelia's second time strawberry picking, but first time participating. :-)