Today was day 6 of fever for Dex. Stephen and I kept thinking he has *got* to get better but in fact, he slowly got worse as the day progressed. He also started having this dry cough last night. Tonight, his fever was up to 104.2F (40.1C) so I called the nurse line who asked me a bunch of questions then told me since he had had a fever for 6 days and it was so high, that he should be seen *immediately* and I was to take him to the ER. She mentioned meningitis which of course flipped me out. This was at 8:55pm. So I got him out of bed and he cried that he was so tired and he just wanted to sleep. Even trying to entice him with his Nintendo DS did not lift his spirits.

I went to the nearest ER which is actually a very small satellite of one of the downtown Seattle hospitals because I did not relish driving all the way into Seattle tonight to go to Children's Hospital. We arrived by 9:20 and by 9:25 we were in a room and they were handing him a little cup of liquid Tylenol because the Motrin I had given him at 8:30 had not yet bought down his fever. The doctor came in and examined him and a short while later we were on our way to X-Ray.

Dex has pneumonia!

OMG! I feel like such a horrible mom for keep telling him he is going to get better and for not taking him to the doctor sooner. To be honest though, there have been plenty of times I have taken him in for a fever only to be told "it's just a virus" and we go home empty-handed to await the end of the fever. I just thought this was the same. Geez, Stephen even had him at hockey today and Dex did not complain except to say he was tired so he did not skate the last 15 minutes.

We left the ER shortly after 10pm. I am sure we would have been out a little sooner but Dex could not decide on which Beanie Baby he wanted (he chose the rat). We went to Walgreens to get his prescription, more Motrin, some Tylenol (ok, Walgreen's brand of those drugs) and some kids' Robitussin DM. I also bought him some Mike'n'Ike's because he said, in the most pathetic and sweetest voice, that since he was sick he should get a treat. I let him eat 4 of them after we got home and he took his medicine.

Now he is lying in bed, coughing away. It is really funny because his cough seemed barely noticeable even just a few hours ago. Stephen and I agreed that his cough seemed like nothing before he went to the hospital but maybe that is just because we were just so concerned about his fever.

Dex is also very concerned that he might not be able to go to school on Monday. He cried in the ER "Great! Now I will miss *more* school". The doctor said he could go as long as his fever was gone by Monday. Jax would feel the same way but only because he'd be worried about how much school work he'd have to catch up on. Dex is missing his friends and teacher.

I am feeling like a failure of a parent. I had two sick kids this week and I decided that I was not going to drag them to the doctor to be told there was nothing to be done by wait it out. I did call the nurse line the other day about Cars' croup (was advised to give him warm liquids, honey and steam if he has trouble breathing). I really did not think there was anything more seriously wrong with Dex other than just a virus. Looking back, even though he did not have a cough, he complained bitterly about the couple blocks we walked in Seattle on Wednesday and he was sitting down to pee because it took too much effort to stand. I made sure he was drinking plenty of water all week but he really did not eat much because he had no appetite. Ugh, I suck.