  Since I picked Aidan up from school on Monday he's had a fever. Every single virus that comes his way leaves him with a fever, so I wasn't too concerned. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday his temperature was between 101 and 103. I let it burn, he seemed healthy to me and I felt like I could bring it down any time I wanted to with Tylenol if it started to spike. Wednesday late afternoon (wouldn't you know, just after doctors office hours ended), Aidan began to say his neck hurt. I knew it was real because he wouldn't move his neck, but just use his eyes in an exaggerated way to see around him.
I was pretty startled and so was John because a stiff neck is the telltale sign for meningitis. Year before last Houston had a meningitis scare and a bunch of highschool kids got sick, I think one even died. The scary news reports are still in my memory with the warnings to take a stiff neck very seriously. I called the after hours line for the doctor, got through the nurse at Texas Children's who passed me on to my pediatricion. As usual, Dr. Ho was much calmer and far less concerned than I was. I like it that way.
He said his suspicion was that Aidan had a sore throat because he's seen toddlers confuse sore throat for hurting neck before. I was pretty incredulous because I was sure Aidan wouldn't have been drinking so eagerly if his throat was hurting. But Dr. Ho confirmed my fear that any ER doctor would automatically give Aidan a spinal tap if we came in with symptoms of fever and hurt neck. Dr. Ho devised a test for us to know which was Aidan's pain source. He said to give him a heaping dose of children's motrin and see if he bounced back a bit. He wouldn't bounce back at all for meningitis b/c nothing really makes irritated cerebral spinal fluid better.
The test went great, Aidan bounced back and played happily with full range of neck motion. We didn't spend the whole night in the ER and Aidan didn't have an unnecessary spinal tap. The next morning we took Aidan to the doctor's office though because Dr. Ho still wanted to check him out. I was sure he would find nothing, but Ellie was late with her shots so it was a good excuse to go. Unfortunately, it turned out Aidan has strep! I was so shocked, I hadn't researched strep at all.
I resisted his advice of administering an antibiotic shot of penicillin, but he was pretty insistent. My kids have never had antibiotics, and I'm really proud of that. Plus, I've read the long course is almost always better than the short course if you do need antibiotics because the long course really wipes everything out, therefore fighting antibiotic-resistant strains. Dr. Ho said this referred to Z-packs, not penicillin. So Aidan got the shot. He still has a high fever, only now he has a really sore leg, too.
I'm not sure it was the best decision, but what can we do now but ride it out? We're doing our best to support his immune system. His thousands of flora of good bacteria are no doubt wiped out from this antibiotic. He'll be more susceptible to illness--especially of the gastro-intestinal track--for weeks, maybe months. John had the perfect analogy. He said the previous battle raging in Aidan's body was just the good guys and bad guys, with us supporting the good guys with no-sugars, anti-microbial food, herbs, sunlight, and garlic.
Now, the battle's the good guys, the bad guys, and the napalm. And now our task is to minimize the casualties from the napalm and try to keep the good guys out of the way with acidophilus, yogurt, cheese, mushrooms, etc. 
