Sick Kids

No, I'm not talking about Pediatrics in the hospital . . . I'm talking about the difference between sick "patients" and when your own kids are sick.

Thankfully, my kids have only been seriously ill or hurt a small number of times. The scariest was when our son was in 1st grade and developed asthma. When I got him to the ER his SpO2 was only 84% . . . very scary! A couple of nebulizer treatments turned him around very quickly . . . and I never forgot the lesson of going to the ER sooner rather than later when it comes to respiratory problems. Thankfully he outgrew the asthma but during the years he had asthma I had inhalers in every vehicle, every home he regularly went to, every purse I carried . . .

Our son rarely gets sick, but when he's sick, he's SICK, and not just a little bit. He's usually in bed for at least a day or two. Yesterday we were out of town and he complained about having a bad headache and a stomach ache. . . within half an hour he was laying in the truck, napping, which he did for several hours while our daughter participated in her events. Of course, being a nurse, I didn't think about him having eaten bad fast food or anything simple like that. I thought about pancreatitis, a kidney infection, stomach ulcers . . . sometimes nurses know too much!

It was difficult when the kids were babies, and couldn't tell us where it hurt or what was wrong. I remember feeling soooo helpless when they cried, and cried, and cried, and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. All we could do was rock, hold, and cuddle them. Those memories are bittersweet; of course I didn't want the kids to be sick, but there is something that touches a mom to the core to know that she, and only she, can comfort a sick child.

Now the kids can tell us what is wrong when they don't feel good . . . IF they feel like it. Our daughter is usually more than willing to detail all aspects of any ache or pain . . . while son is often reluctant to do so. His side of the conversation this morning went like this: "I don't know where I don't feel good, I just feel bad . . . yes, my head hurts . . . I can't rate it on the pain scale! . . . my stomach doesn't feel good . . . I don't know if I feel like throwing up . . . I don't WANT to rate it on the pain scale . . . OK, FINE, it's about a 5 or 6 . . . what do you mean by 'localized or general pain'? "

Five or 6 on the pain scale is where I start to get concerned, but it's been steady or decreasing since then so I'm not too worried. He's been eating and drinking a little throughout the day, and the pain has not localized, as it would with appendicitis or anything more serious. I will take him to the doctor tomorrow if it gets worse. He's been sleeping much of the day, so I think it's some type of virus/flu that's been going around.

Sick teenagers are crabby, just like sick babies. The only trouble is, my sick teenage boy won't let me "cuddle" him ("Mom, you're WEIRD!"). He has, however, kept his cell phone close all afternoon. In between questions about his pain, going to the bathroom ("Mom, that's SICK to talk about!"), and eating and drinking, I found out that he's texting his girlfriend. I guess when you're a teenager in 2008, texting your girlfriend when you're sick takes the place of cuddling with your mom.