A Not So Happy Birthday

Andy ended up having a not-so-happy Birthday weekend. It all started with a light stomachache on Friday, more of a blah feeling than anything. By Friday night he was up all night with a fever, sweats, horrible headache and stomachache. But on Saturday morning, his birthday, he was feeling better. We had a breakfast of eggs and bacon, his request, and then sat around the house for a bit. That's when he started to feel nasty again. He slept off and on most of the day, his main problem being a headache. He pumped the water and Gatorade into his body, and felt much better by late afternoon.

We went to the rodeo and had a lot of fun. He felt fine the whole time and when we left, he even commented that he felt the best he had since Friday morning. We were both so relieved that he was feeling better. He slept great on Saturday night, woke up feeling fine on Sunday but with a slight headache and back ache, which he always gets if he lays around too much. He headed to his parents to help hay before it rained, and I went to church. We no more than got home from church and settled for a nap when the phone rang.

Andy was miserable, not even able to get up from the couch comfortably. He said he needed to go to the doctor, which for him means he's BAD. So my mom came and watched the girls, I picked him up at his parents' house and down we went to Urgent Care. His entire head was beat red, he was sweating like crazy and covered head-to-toe in a blanket because he felt like he was freezing.

At Urgent Care, the first thing they asked was when we pulled the tick off of him. When we informed the nurse--and later the doctor--that we'd never found a tick or rash, they were both surprised but said he's showing classic symptoms for either Lyme's Disease or Ehrlichiosis. His blood pressure was super high, his temp was over 102, and his head was pounding. They sent him home with 2 wks of antibiotics and strict instructions to come back if he wasn't feeling better in 2 days or if new symptoms showed up.

Poor guy is absolutely miserable. He can't eat anything without upsetting his stomach, he goes from feverish to fine and back in minutes, his head pounds to the point that I can see his pulse at his temple...he's not good. And everyone says that's exactly how they were, or their brother, or their aunt. So let's hope these meds work and he's feeling better soon. We all need that.