D texted me that she has had a 103 degree fever since yesterday. She went to the student health center yesterday, where did a strep test that was negative and gave her throat lozenges. I told her to get her roommate to drive her to an urgent care center when the roommate is back from class later.
But I feel all antsy and anxious. It is probably nothing major, but I don’t think she’s had a fever that high since she was pretty little. How do other parents deal when their kids are sick and away from home? (She’s a four-hour drive away).
Look and see if there is a service in that area that will do deliveries from local restaurants and have some chicken soup (or at least a nice hot healthy meal) delivered. Sick kids often don’t like to trek to the dining halls or cook for themselves.
Did the health center say anything about the fever? Throat lozenges don’t cut it.
Hopefully she has some access to Advil or Tylenol type products. Tell her to take some, email her profs that she is sick, then crawl into bed and rest. Sleep is best, or just Netflix binge if she can’t sleep. A fever is nature’s way of curing so a fever isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
If she isn’t feeling better tomorrow, go back to the college’s health center or to a local Urgent Care facility.
I’ve been known to call the local Chinese place that delivers to have them deliver egg drop and wonton soup. The place near one of my kid’s schools offers fruit smoothies as well which are refreshing for a sore throat but might not be best if one’s stomach is upset as well.
That is my worst fear!! My D had vertigo/inner ear stuff going on last year and I worried so much!
Has your D been taking pain reliever? She should definitely be taking motrin to bring that fever down. If she has a virus, she should be getting out of the fever stage soon. If it continues she definitely should get to the urgent care for another opinion in case it’s an infection of some sort. Does she have a good friend on campus that could look in on her?
Fevers are most often a passing virus, and there’s nothing to do except wait them out—throat lozenges may actually cut it, if the health center ran the tests for the usual bacterial and severe suspects.
We are all too familiar with the Urgent Care near my D2’s campus. My kid always has stuff happen (or… more accurately, decides to call me for advice about things…) while the campus health center is closed. An infected cut and a broken arm have both required trips there. My kid walked sometimes, once a professor gave her a ride (!), and she now has friends with cars and is also set up on Uber so she could Uber over.
I’d agree that she should be taking Advil or Tylenol and trying to sleep it off, but if that isn’t helping (fever ought to go down with those) she needs to go back to the campus health center or to the urgent care. Better safe than sorry.
Could be influenza, it is that time of year… but you would think the health center would identify that??
Well, she’s at urgent care now, so I hope they are more thorough. She has been taking ibuprofen, so I told her to let them know without it the fever is 103. The college is small, so the health center is primarily staffed by nurses.
Good idea about the Chinese soup @doschicos. She loves egg drop!
Could she have mono? My D just got over it and it’s going around. Because of the long incubation period I don’t know if she caught it at her school in MA or here at home (NYC burbs) but I’ve heard of kids in both places who have it. She had a high fever and painful throat. They did a blood test at the school health center.
Good luck with dealing with it and helping her feel better, whatever it is! It’s so hard to be hours away and feel helpless.
This is the worst…My D1 got sick in NY last year where she was staying for the summer. I stopped in NYC on my way to the Dominican Republic for two weeks, and she said she didnt feel good, and her eyes were red. I found out she had pink eye and strep! I felt awful as there was nothing I could do. She felt awful because she had to miss a few days of her internship.
Does she have a support system in place to help her? When my daughter was living in the dorms, she got severe food poisoning. I ended up flying up there (short flight) and checking us both into a hotel because the bathroom situation was untenable in the dorm. By the time I got there, she was severely dehydrated and had to get IV fluids. I’ve been shocked by the low quality of care at the university health center. Really shocked.
My kid would kill me. Do not do that. All of our kids have phones and can text us with what is going on. Resident life will call you if something really serious happens.
While this is scary, it gets even more nerve-wracking when your kids is in a foreign country studying abroad for a semester and gets sick… somehow though they manage to get through. Hope all is well.
My kiddo has been sick several times this year with various maladies, so I wouldn’t worry too much about this. Hopefully it’s not a mono diagnosis though!
Moving fast on further assessment could be a good idea. Tamiflu (if appropriate) is best given as close to the onset of symptoms as possible, for example.
It is tough to have a kid sick at school; being in touch and supporting her through the decision tree is important learning. DD had mono diagnosed the day before her end of freshman year finals. The school health center was great about thorough evaluation and offers to contact relevant academic staff (profs and dean) to re-arrange things. She had more papers due than exams and her pro-active nature saved her from the re-scheduling piece. All the best to her. There is a rotten flu or two around these days.
When my kids were sick in college, I sent them chicken soup. Just make sure your daughter’s roommates can pick it up and bring it to her, otherwise, the soup will stay unclaimed if your daughter is too sick to get it herself.
My kid always has stuff happen (or… more accurately, decides to call me for advice about things…) while the campus health center is closed. An infected cut and a broken arm have both required trips there. My kid walked sometimes, once a professor gave her a ride (!), and she now has friends with cars and is also set up on Uber so she could Uber over.