A Mother's Worst Fear

Shaun's had a mysterious headache since Sunday night and the only way we've been able to control it is by giving him Children's Motrin every 8 hours or so. And it wears off like clockwork and then Shaun is crying again saying his head hurts. I called Telehealth on Tuesday night because I didn't want to continue masking his symptoms with medication (I hate using anything like that unless it's absolutely necessary) and the nurse advised me to see a doctor within 24 hours. Well, yesterday I just didn't think Shaun needed to see a doctor until the day wore on and he seemed to be worse than the previous days. His head seemed to ache worse and I realized he hadn't eaten since Monday at breakfast. Yes, 2 1/2 days without so much as a bite or 2 of a bagel and some apple juice. No wonder he is so boney.

So today at dinner something happened that convinced me he had to see a doctor. He had been asking all afternoon for a snack but I held off, knowing I wanted him to eat 'real food' for dinner. I was making corn, his favourite. When I called him to the table for dinner, he came slowly, ate one spoonful, and said he wasn't hungry and that his head hurt too much. Then he asked to go to bed! He'd only been awake from his nap for 2 hours. That was it. I called Craig at work and told him I was taking Shaun to the on-call doctor. Craig FLEW home (he even admitted to me that he blew through a couple very yellow lights) and together we went to the doctor. All the way there I was picturing what the doctor was going to say:

"Wow, this is quite the mystery. All I can suggest is that we put Shaun on a list for a CAT scan."

"It's very odd for a child his age to have a headache for this long. Let me refer you to a specialist."

"Head on down to the hospital. I will call them and let them know you're coming."


I kept visualizing how I would react when I heard he had a tumor of some kind, or that he's been having seizures. The thought of Shaun (or Ian for that matter) having some sort of illness that I can't do anything about terrifies me.

So we got in to see the doctor. He looked at Shaun's throat and asked Shaun a few questions. He sort of rolled his eyes and made sure to tell us this is the second night this week he's been on call, then went on to say that Shaun just has the flu. There's nothing we can do about it and, in fact, that's all he's been dealing with all day. I asked about Shaun's lack of a cough and the persistence of his headache. They were all explained away by Dr. T. Way to make me feel like a fool! I'm so glad he's not our regular doctor.

But I'm super relieved that it's 'just' the flu. Hopefully Shaun will be back to eating more than a few bites at a time by the weekend.