We just haven’t had that much experience with fevers in our home.
When I picked Chica up from her enrichment class that Wednesday she greeted me tearfully that her head hurt and she was having a hard time catching her breath. I looked her over, felt her head and asked if the breathing was because she was holding in a cry?
As the afternoon wore on Chica developed the fever and the head ache continued. Of course by this time it was 5:10 pm, after office hours. But when I called the Doctor’s Office, they had an immediate opening. A Gift. The strep test was a quick positive, so off to the pharmacy to pick up the antiboitics that were, of course, in stock. And paid for by insurance. A Gift. Another Gift.
The next day, while Chica laid on the love seat that is just on the other side of my desk, she listened to a story while the rest of us worked. 
On her Red Apple/Shuffle. A Gift. The House on Pooh Corner, close to us, while the rest of us worked on Math, Science, spelling, Reading. Gift
And just above Chica, on the edge of my desk, beside the pictures, was a bottle of cool water, sometimes flavored with fruit, always refreshed. 
And at this moment, my breath caught…every 6 hours there is motrin to alternate with Tylenol for the head ache and fever. Whenever the water bottle is empty, there is fresh cool water to refill it. And the face of a child 2000 miles south reminds me of the mothers who hold feverish children, with no clean water, no antibiotics, no comforting chicken soup…
and the gratitude swells,
and my heart aches for those mothers, those children, as I hold my feverish child close.
seeing the gifts, #382 – 417
Antibiotics
Doctors available after 5
Cool cloths for rising fever
Humidifiers
Motrin
Tylenol
Cold water
Fever Broke
By Quiet Waters 