And an FB-er I shall Remain!

At least once a week, sometimes much, MUCH more, I resolve to just quit Facebook, finally hit that "delete account" button and fade back into the world of relative anonymity. There a zillion reasons for it, but being able to keep in touch with friends far away, and certainly family keeps me hanging on, albeit grudgingly.

However, after last night, this Mama is an FB lifer, if not an outright fan of the "most popular social network on the planet".

Malía had been feverish all day. Suddenly, at 10:30pm, she woke, screaming, burning up.  My fancy dancy ear thermometer decided to bail on me, even with new batteries. I ran next door, babe in arms, but they (and their babes) had all lights out.  Two doors down, a mama loaned me a thermometer that reads at the temple (so cool! and now it's one my wish list!) and it said 100.8.  But, Mal had been in the cooler night air for about 5 minutes, I knew it had to be higher-  the heat literally radiated off her as the other Mama and Papa could feel too.

Back at home, a new reading said 101.9.  Then 102. 
Now, keep in mind that, beyond some niffles, the occasional cough, Mal has never been sick.  Her highest temp, to date, had been 100.4.
I considered emerg, but knew we'd be there hours before anyone saw her.
I hit FB instead-  a generic message to any mom out there at that hour, which by then was past 11pm.

Not 5 seconds passed before someone began a chat, and then another and another, and moms began commenting, too.  I was calling the Health Hotline (forget it's actual name) on one of the suggestions when a friend from our ttc days messaged that her husband, a doctor, was up and about to chat with me.
He asked the "history" questions, assured me there were no worries until the fever got to 104 and told me what to do: aside from the liquids, cool bath, cold cloths, Temrpa I had ALREADY done: hit her with motrin and tylenol alternately, every 2 hours.   I wanted to resist b/c I try to keep her commercial drug free, but I knew he was right (a whole slew of moms had messaged the same, even a nurse had said it). I took her temp one more time- now up past 102, although she was awake and not fussing, and in went the Motrin.  Within 10 minutes, she was out like a light.  I finally fell asleep, too. At 3:33am (hey, isn't that the time in the Amityville Horror??) I woke, so checked her again and not only was the fever down, it wasn't a fever anymore-  99.1!!  I woke her for some water and tylenol, anyway.  She slept until 7:15am. Likely would have slept more, but Mama was restless and she always feels it, too.

Temp retake:  97.9. YES!!

She lay on my chest for a while, then asked to watch Disney and have "my old red bottle please, Mama, with leitinho. Hot, okay?" and I obliged.

Now, some of you seasoned moms are probably thinking-  gees, woman, it was only in the 102's what's the deal.  And, believe me, you'd be right-  I mean in Haiti, I treated MUCH worse. I kept my head, I kept OTHER mamas from the freak dance.  But, that was pre-motherhood AND, probably most importantly, pre losing Kaia to a viral fever...

Yes, my mind was going "there"...

But, thank God it also went to "where can I get info now and FAST from REAL people" and in a 2 line FB status, I had that help. Real help (and even some soothing words from those who didn;t know what to do, either :).

So, yeah, FB maybe have a lot of things that make it suck sometimes, but in the end, it allows me to have 157 friends and THEIR friends and family (and likely 500+ if I had added all that have tried to "friend" me before:) ready for a laugh OR for a life line.  An online "house call" with a real M.D.-  gee, folks in the States- what would THAT have cost me in the real world?  LOL