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I hung out at my neighbor's place last night for a bit and when I returned Ben had already been put down for the night. Following my typical routine I went in to check on him and as I felt his head I noted that he felt very warm. Kerri took his temp and it was [a shocking!] 102 degrees. Shocking because he didn't seem to have a fever when he went to bed.

We gave him some Tylenol to reduce the fever and then, since Kerri and I both had to work today, Kerri went to bed as I took the first shift of "Ben Watch". It took nearly 1.5 hours for the fever to get down to a reasonable level of 100.5. He slept through most of the rest of the night and seemed to have improved quite a bit by morning. Despite the fact that 8 of our last 10 trips to the doctor resulted in, "he's got a virus of some sort that will run its course", we decided to invest our $40 co-pay and some time for what would likely be another apparent trip based on paranoia. But not this time -- He has pneumonia and is now on antibiotics. Looking back the only sign of anything being wrong was a thin but persistent cough that started yesterday morning. Where did this come from?

I guess I'm noting this to make myself feel a bit more normal when I think about seeing the doctor and [virtually] knowing that he's going to tell me there's nothing that can be done -- It's just a 'cold'. Sometimes there is something wrong and wasting the money on the times when nothing can/should be done only seems like a waste after you've spent the money. It's like fire insurance; I've seemingly wasted thousand of dollars over the years but I wouldn't feel that way if my house burned down.

One last note for Ben to read when he's older (and to give him another reason to hate me later), I was a little impatient with him yesterday when he got cranky, thinking that he's just too needy sometimes, a "mama's boy". And in fact he was very sick, powering through it as much as possible but unable to operate at 100% cheer level due to his near lack of ability to breathe. I'll be more thoughtful in the future but as of yesterday I believe my new label should be "Ass-Dad".

UPDATE: He just woke up from his nap with another 102 degree fever. He always seems to get warmer when he's sleeping but that's high enough to screw with my comfort level. Back on to Ben Watch, 2004.