My son crawled into the "big bed" early Saturday morning complaining of a headache. His sinus had been bothering him, so I thought he had a sinus headache. By 7:00 a.m. he was burning up with a fever of 103.8. I gave him some Tylenol and tucked him under the covers for a bit more sleep.
The fever lasted all day with the Tylenol not having any effect. In the afternoon, my husband took our son to the urgent care clinic. Trevor requested a nasal swab and the doctor said there wasn't any need after listening to the symptoms. When she heard about his extreme lethargy, she said, "that's what I was waiting to hear." She wrote a script for Tamiflu and little did we know it's extremely difficult to find a pharmacy with the product to fill the prescription! At 2 minutes to closing, I found the right store and picked up the medication. The pharmacist told me it had to be taken with food and could cause drowsiness.
My son had his first dose at 8pm that evening. By 10pm he had thrown up all over himself, his bed, sheets and pillow. My husband found him standing at the top of the staircase unaware he had vomited all over himself. At 10:45 pm I checked on my son to see if he was still feverish. He woke up and looked at me with such fear in his eyes. He started to sob, ask me questions, not really aware where he was and not even certain who I was. He was hallucinating and it totally freaked me out! I ran to get my husband who was able to him. We had to move him into our bedroom for the night as he was so frightened in his own room. He calmed down almost immediately when in our bedroom and went to sleep again quickly.
I immediately googled Tamiflu and found nausea and vomiting a common side effect. I read further to find if the person taking the medication becomes delusional to stop taking it immediately!!! I filled with guilt over giving the Tamiflu to my son. What kind of poison had I poured into his little body?! Why are they prescribing this medication if the side effects are so severe?
I barely slept all night, listening for any sound my son made. At 4 a.m. I felt him and the fever was almost gone. When he woke up in the morning he wanted breakfast. I was so relieved to see some improvement in how he was feeling.
He ate three meals yesterday, had some energy and the fever was gone. Today he slept in until 8:30 and again ate three meals. He came outside with me for a few minutes, to get some fresh air, that was all he was up for. Another day of rest tomorrow and hopefully he'll be feeling even better. I'd like to see some colour back in his cheeks and his eyes not looking so sore and glassy before I send him back to school.
It's scary when a child becomes so ill. I know a fever is the body's way of fighting off an infection, but it lasted over 24 hours and the Tylenol did nothing to bring it down. His whole little body felt like it was on fire where ever I touched him. No wonder he named his new Webkinz dragon Fire!!!
Tonight I am feeling very thankful for his returning to good health. I will continue with his Kid-E-Care supplement to boost his immune system and do the same for my girls. I was so happy to find it at the health food store. I try to follow alternative health care and this incident over the prescribed medication was a strong reminder of how my children do much better with natural health solutions.
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