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It's Not A Fever

This is a joke in our office because what most parents think is a fever and what is medically considered a fever are different. If this is news to you, don't feel bad. Like I said, most parents don't know.
We get a lot of nurse calls of parents worried about the fever their child has. The nurse just loves when she asks how high it is and the answer is 99.6. An actual fever is anything above 102* F. If it is lower than 102 they actually recommend not treating it because the body is just trying to fight off whatever it is that's bothering it. (However, giving Tylenol/Motrin for a fever lower than 102 isn't bad, and usually helps reduce the pain or discomfort they are having.)
Anyway...we have a nurse who is not shy about letting parents know that their child doesn't have a fever. Of course she does it in a nice way but one night, when we were working late (that's when everything gets funnier) and she had taken a lot of "fever" calls, we told her she should start saying it in the way Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's not a tumor."

But the real reason I wanted to post this was because our very biggest pet peeve about fevers is...well, let me post an example...
Parent calls and asks to speak to a nurse or schedule an appointment. They then say their child has a fever. We then ask how high their fever is and we get this response, "I'm not sure. I don't have a thermometer, but they feel hot." Really? You have a child and don't own a thermometer? And you're calling the doctor's office, worried about a fever, yet you don't even know how high it is? *face palm*

So this is our plea to you and anyone you know with kids or will be having kids:
BUY A THERMOMETER. If you don't have one for your child, go buy one. If you are going to a baby shower for a first time mom, buy them a thermometer. And I'm not talking a fancy, light-up, reads the temperature out loud, whatever thermometer. I'm talking a $2 simple, on/off thermometer. In fact, our office prefer you take the temperature via auxiliary (armpit), under the tongue, or rectally for babies. Those head swipe kind tend to not be as accurate and sometimes the ear ones don't work as well either. But hey, something is better than nothing. Just get a thermometer, people!

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