YOU THINK THERE'S NOTHING SCARIER THAN HAVING A SICK CHILD...

but then you have a sick grandchild. Not only will your heart be wrenched by what your poor grandchild is going through, but also by the agony which you know your son or daughter will be experiencing. My friend Paula warned me about this a while back. Now I know it to be true. 

Little Goober woke up on Monday with a bit of fever. Lex wasn't too worried, since that is fairly common 24-72 hours after a baby's first round of vaccinations, which Goobs had received on Friday. However, after spending half the day doing nothing but eating and going right back to sleep, she decided to call the pediatrician. They said it was a bit late to be a result of the vaccines, and since all fevers in a baby this young are taken very seriously, they advised her to take him to the ER at Dell Children's, to have some blood work done.

After a couple of hours of waiting, they found out that he appeared to have some sort of bacterial infection, which they should be able to take care of with a strong infusion of antibiotics. But, first, they had to rule out the possibility of meningitis. Unfortunately, there's only one way to do that -- with a lumbar puncture. With great hope in my heart, I texted a nurse friend, asking if they'd managed to improve those over the years, making them totally painless. "I don't want to tell you." Then later..."They do numb them first, but..." Thankfully, they kicked Lex and Nate out of the room, so they didn't have to witness the procedure.

Then there was more waiting for the results of that test, and much floor-pacing and prayer-requesting on the part of this grandma. The results finally came back negative a few hours later (Whew!) but then they had to wait around for his antibiotics infusion. Throughout this whole process, we kept offering to come join them at the hospital, but they kept thinking they were about to be released, and would be on their way home by the time we got there. Little did they know! They finally made it home to their own comfy beds around midnight, and I was able to stop my pacing.

The next morning he was taken to his pediatrician for a thorough examination, and were told that he should be fine now, and just to keep an eye out for any signs of fever, inconsolable crankiness, or extreme lethargy. I'm happy to report that he has been fever free ever since, and seems to be back to his happy little self!

However, having dealt with these pesky infections before, continued prayers couldn't hurt, right?