motherhood without the internet (google specifically)

i can't imagine being a mom and not having the internet so i can google things like my daughter's symptoms. the not knowing would have driven me insane.

yesterday, michelle woke up from her nap all clingy and irritable. i asked her if anything hurt, and she said her head hurts. her cousin comes over for a quick stop and she's jumping up and down, screaming, "i have a playmate!" her cousin leaves and she's grumpy again.

we go out to dinner and she tells me as we're walking to the restaurant, "i just want to lie down mom. i'm getting dizzy." we quickly ate dinner and went home. she was ok when we got home...slightly warm to the touch but the lollipop she got after dinner seemed to brighten her mood.

we went to bed at 10 and then she woke up at 5 am, she was burning up. i took her temp the first time and it was at 101.9...i was starting to worry. while she was awake, i gave her some tylenol and prayed for her. i asked her again if anything hurts and she told me that her head hurts. i asked her if she wants me to put a towel on her head (she absolutely hates this) to my surprise, she said yes. she must really be feeling crappy. i placed the damp towel on her forehead and she falls back to sleep at 545 am. i took her temperature again at around 6 am and it read 102.6. then she started to twitch for 10 minutes...one twitch after another. i thought to myself, 'ganito ba yung kombulsyon pag tulog???' i hold her hand and whisper to her, 'everything will be ok sweetheart.' as soon as the twitching subsided, i get my laptop and google 'fever twitching' and read that it is harmless and common when the fever goes beyond 102F. nakakatakot ha!

she twitches several more times and talks in her sleep. the first time she says, 'dad, why you not go there?'. the second time she says, 'my hands are sticky!'--with matching hand gesture like it was indeed sticky.

anytime she falls ill, i google the symptoms so i know if what's happening is something that should be cause for concern.

she woke up today at 845 am, all clingy and irritable still. after breakfast and another dose of tylenol, she's all better. she's a chatterbox again and laughs at the silliest things. she's still warm to the touch and i researched about fevers that occur only at night and here's a sample of what i found:

Obviously she is sick and as happens occasionally this illness only produces fever at night. It is a characteristic of the illness. Most of these illnesses last about 4-6 days, although there is great variation. Getting the fever down may make her feel better but it does nothing to the course of the illness. I suggest you limit her activity to indoor stuff until she is completely well.

Fever, which is caused by some of the same internal chemicals that promote airway inflammation, and is also one of the body's defenses against attacking microbes, also tends to rise as night falls. Like normal body temperature, which is lowest in the morning and highest toward evening, most fevers peak near the end of the day. In fact, this pattern is so characteristic that even if a nighttime fever has eased by morning, doctors are trained to wait until the next evening before pronouncing the fever gone.

sana magtuloy tuloy na yung pag galing nya. take care michelle!!