Tag Archive for 'fever'

Just One of Those Days

Published on November 10, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The day started out good today – we were up early(ish) and Layla was pleasant(ish). It seemed like things were going to go well. The sun was shining, the baby was eating breakfast, the wife was getting ready for work. Everything was on time.

Then I checked Layla’s temperature.

37.3 degrees.

Hardly anything to be concerned about, unless your daycare considers 37.5 to be a fever and reason to keep your contagious child away from the other children. Instead of panicking, we let Layla finish breakfast, get dressed and ready to go like nothing was wrong. It’s not really a problem if we ignore it, right?

Before we left, I checked Layla’s temperature one more time. 37.0. Good enough for me, so I grabbed her and dumped her on the daycare staff and was gone before they had a chance to stick a thermometer in her armpit. Luckily, they never called all day so I guess she survived.

On my way to work, I reserved a seat on the train home, timing it so I could meet Tamie and Layla, who would be coming from Grandma’s house. Thankfully, there was a seat available. Again, except for the minor temperature hiccup, everything was going smoothly…

Work seemed to go well, until my boss had a meeting with a customer. 30 minutes after they started their meeting, we got a call reporting a bug. Not a big deal – all part of the job. A short while after that, another phone call. Another bug. Two bugs for the two developers still in the office – easy. Comes with the territory. Luckily, there were no more phone calls after that…

All was quiet… 6:00 rolled around and the other developer was about to go home… of course, that’s when errors start happening and we realize that our database server is out of disk space. Oops.

For the next two and a half hours, we were knee deep in investigations without a sniff of leaving. Around 8:47, we had done enough (or were tired enough) to feel it was safe to go home. Now, 8:47 might sound late but it’s really not that bad, compared to some nights. The bad part was the colleague who wanted to leave at 6 — he got to the office early (7:30am) today. On top of that, my seat on the train to meet Tamie and Layla was for 8:30… argh.

So I didn’t meet Tamie and Layla. What I did meet was a rainstorm when I finally got back to Ebina. And here I was without my umbrella. And without any money to buy one.

I headed over to the bank to withdraw some money only to find it locked up tight. Here’s something (else) that doesn’t make sense to me about this country — ATM’s that are not 24 hours. After banking hours, I have to pay an extra fee to withdraw money, but only while the ATM’s are actually open. I’m not sure what time they close but I am sure that it’s before 10pm.

So I ran home in the rain, cutting through the grocery store that I would have bought some dinner at, had I any money. Luckily, the torrential downpour stopped by the time I got to the other side of the store. I walked home, grateful that the storm blew over quickly.

At the apartment, there were three packages waiting for me to carry upstairs. Tamie had ordered diapers from Amazon and they arrived with another, thankfully smaller, mystery package. I decided to take the elevator, double-checking that I pushed 3. I didn’t want to wake up anymore unsuspecting neighbours.

I dropped the packages at home, took some money from Tamie, and then headed back out to get some grub to eat. We needed cereal and milk for tomorrow morning, and I needed a beer tonight.

As I stepped around the corner, on my way to the grocery store, I stepped in a huge puddle. Just great. I hope the waterproofing I put on those new shoes works.

After picking up a couple things, I headed back outside to go home. The rain had started again… no, sorry – the STORM had started again. The cats and dogs from the previous drizzling were huddled under a bench while the wolves and tigers fell from the sky. The rain drops were so big they hurt when they hit you. Yah, it was rough.

By the time I made it home, I was soaked. A quick change of clothes and a quick beer and food later, and I’m here typing this tale of woe.

Luckily, tomorrow is another day. Here’s hoping it’s one of those other days.

A Zooless, Fever-filled Sunday. And Some Magic To Boot.

Published on September 6, 2009 in Family, Hospital and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

So we were all ready to go to the zoo this morning, waking up early and everything. We’ve been thinking of going check out another zoo in Yokohama since visiting the last one because we all had a great time despite the heat. With the cooler (or at least less humid) days of September upon us, it seemed like a good idea. But alas, the best laid plans…

Getting up early wasn’t exactly my idea, and judging by Tamie’s reluctance to wake up it wasn’t her’s either. The quiet cries of the baby in the next room was enough to wake me from my slumber and, after I got her and brought her into bed, wake Tamie up too. Unfortunately, the crying wasn’t because of a neglectful parent or a bad dream – Layla had a fever. So we had a decision to make – take our ailing child to see monkeys and elephants, or don’t. The voice of reason eventually spoke up and told me we should probably stick around home and nurture our baby back to health. Then the voice of reason told me she was still tired and I should take our daughter into the other room.

When Tamie finally crawled out of bed, not too long after we did, she found that one of the wires in her braces had broken. She called her dentist and made an appointment for 11:30, giving us enough time to have a good pancake breakfast before she had to bolt. So even if Layla was in perfect health, our zoo plans were probably not going to happen anyways. The best laid plans…

While Tamie was out, Layla and I played with most of her thousand stuffed animals before enjoying some fine Sesame Street DVD’s. She ended up falling asleep just before Tamie came back. Had Tamie not come back, I might have joined her in her little siesta. As it was, it gave me ample opportunity to head out and rollerblade on my newly rotated wheels in broad daylight. Things were finally starting to look up…

I won’t go into another long diatribe about my rollerblading experience, save to say two things. Despite the cooler September weather, it’s still bloody hot in this country, even without the 100% humidity. Secondly, I’m not sure whether my newly rotated wheels are just too old, the sidewalks here are just too rollerblade-unfriendly, or my technique is just too bad, but half way through this excursion and I lost a wheel. By the time I made it home, my left foot was constantly grinding on the cement. Fun times, indeed.


View 2009-09-06 – Popped a wheelie. in a larger map

After getting cleaned up, I asked the girls what they wanted to do. Layla’s fever seeming to subside and Tamie’s braces back in one piece, we were ready to take on the world. Or at least, Ebina. We headed back to our standard shopping centre for lack of any better ideas. After getting there we stood around wondering what to do – Tamie didn’t even want to shop… I was wondering if she was coming down with something too! There was apparently a magic show starting at 4, which seemed interesting… at least to me. It wasn’t quite 4 yet so we had to find something to do until then.

We ended up sitting on a patio drinking overpriced, oversweetened iced tea. If I thought 800 yen for a Corona was bad, 700 yen for peach flavoured sugary tea was ridiculous (Tamie got the strawberry soda, which was even sweeter). We sipped slowly, waiting for the ice to melt and water down the syrupy concoction. Unfortunately, our patience was not matched by Layla’s and after sitting in the heat for more than ten minutes, she wanted to go do something.

We wandered over to the pet shop to see the sleeping dogs, one of which wasn’t asleep. I wish I could say I’ve never seen Layla so scared, but she’s scared of everything. It’s still awesome, though, when she does get scared and run and hide behind me. The little puppy in the cage was wound up, for some reason, and just the fact he was jumping around (inside a cage, no less) was enough to set her off. Eventually she realized he couldn’t get out and was brave enough to check out the other animals, so long as I was holding her hand.

Not long after leaving the pet shop, we found that it was nearing the start of the magic show. We ventured over to the stage area to get a good spot. There were a lot of kids sitting close to the stage, and a surprising (or maybe not) number of older gentlemen too. Check out this video of a part of the show to get a better idea of why Japanese magicians are much cooler than their Canadian brethren. Notice the drunk guy in the black shirt. There were a number of his kind there.

After the colourful show ended we headed back home. Tamie wanted to get out jogging and I just wanted to get out of the heat. After she came back, we had a nice salmon pasta dinner before eventually putting Layla to bed.

It wasn’t more than an hour or so before Layla started crying. Not the typical crying in her sleep, but the ‘I’m going to throw up all over Dad’ kind of crying. Despite Tamie getting up to go tend to the kid, I knew she wouldn’t stop crying until she was in my arms. I held her, patted her on the back, comforted her, and finally, predictably, relieved her of her stomach contents. Her fever was through the roof so we gave her more medication before changing her pajamas and putting her back to bed.

Eventually Tamie wanted to head to bed, right around the same time Layla was awake again. I figured she’ll be crying through the night and suggested Layla sleep with us tonight. Since I wanted to finish writing this blog entry, I left Layla with Tamie in our bed and came back out to the living room. While I’m typing now, I heard the two of them giggling like school girls and chatting away. Layla even came out to visit me, telling me she wasn’t allowed to watch her favourite Sesame Street DVDs and asking me to take her picture. Laziness got the better of me, despite the numerous (and hilarious) poses. I didn’t want to encourage such behaviour at 11:00 at night!

I ended up giving the poor kid some warm milk and some water before she wandered off back into the bedroom… at least I think that’s where she went. Every once in a while I can still hear the pitter patter of little feet wandering the halls. I guess I should sign off now and go make sure she’s not sleepwalking.

Happy Hump Day

Published on August 27, 2009 in Family, Layla's sick days and Parenting. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This morning we woke up, as usual. Tamie got up, as usual. I got up a bit later. As usual. Layla was reluctant to even consider getting up. As usual. Seemed like another normal weekly Wednesday.

Today, however, was not as usual as it should have been. Layla’s reluctance to get up was followed by a reluctance to eat or even move. A quick check of her temperature showed a steamy 38.4 degrees under her sweaty armpit. (Japanese thermometers go either in your ear or your armpit – consider yourself warned if you ever find yourself in a hospital here. Do NOT stick it in your mouth). Luckily she’s not coughing at all, so it shouldn’t be asthma related. I hope.

So I took the day off to take care of her in her time of need. Taking care of her mainly consists of being a comfortable place for her to lie down on while she watches Sesame Street (over and over and over and over again), sleeps and sweats out the fever. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

By noon, Layla finally woke up and was starting to get a bit house-happy, if not hungry, so I took her out to get some air. We went down to Vina Walk (the local shopping area) and killed some time running up and down stairs and escalators. Even sick, she never slows down.

I tried to get her to eat something, but everything I offered she refused. Then she said she wanted ice cream. Who am I to argue with a sick kid? Especially when it’s 40 degrees outside and I know Baskin Robbins is having a sale this month. So we got an ice cream snowman with a very, berry strawberry body and an orange sherbet head. Unfortunately, Layla only had a couple bites and I was forced to eat most of it (wouldn’t want to waste food now, would I?)

Some time after the lunch that we didn’t eat because Layla still refused to eat anything, Tamie called. She felt guilty for abandoning us and decided to come home, so we met her at the station and went for lunch. Soba and tempura for us. 13 soba noodles and three and a half dangos (small balls made of some kind of rice) for Layla.

After lunch we did some quick shopping before coming home. Layla was ready to pass out again, and Tamie got over her guilt fast enough to want to go jogging. So I was relegated to being a cushion again while Layla slept, this time without the sesame street!

Once Tamie got back, she went about making dinner while Layla went about trying to get comfy and I did my best to make her comfy. We ate. Layla watched. I think she might have had a couple grapes, but I can’t say for sure. I do know she refused to drink the strawberry-banana concoction that Tamie whipped up — made me wonder who’s kid she was because I certainly didn’t turn down the cup of delicious!

After Tamie finished eating is when things got even more interesting. Her stomach started doing somersaults and she crawled to the couch to lay down and die. Layla, ever helpful, thought it was a good time to practice tickling her mom. Mom didn’t laugh much, but I sure did. I can still hear her creeping up on Tamie saying ‘tickle, tickle, tickle‘ the way I do to her. Makes me so proud. I just hope she doesn’t ever plan on being a doctor with that bedside manner.

Shortly after that, I sent both girls to bed. I’m left here alone and awake, wondering if I should risk my own health by going over to the other side of the apartment with the feverish little one and the gut-wrenched wife. I guess I should… at some point.