I Begged God to Keep Dylan Healthy.
Dylan had a fever for four solid days.
Every day, he could barely lift his head off of the pillow. He would get up and go downstairs in the morning. He’d watch television for two or three hours, but then he’d fall asleep. He ate almost nothing, and didn’t want to sit up to drink the liquids he so desperately needed. He choked down some ginger ale and maybe two glasses of water. All day.
During his four days of agony, Dylan slept about 16 hours a day. He kept going to bed earlier and earlier until, on Saturday, he went to bed at 6 p.m.
He missed being a local scarer every, single day of the “mandatory” weekend – the biggest weekend of his year. It was incredibly sad.
During this time, I gave him Tylenol to help him sleep, hovered enough to know he wasn’t going to eat or drink much of anything, and took him to the doctor – who ruled out mono, flu and strep. I got a flu shot while I was there, just in case.
The doctor said that sometimes a virus just needs to run its course. But I didn’t have much patience for a virus “running its course.” I prayed and prayed and prayed. I texted and emailed my mom all day long with updates. By Saturday night, when he was still feverish at 11:00 and had been sleeping for another five straight hours, I hit my knees.
I begged God to keep Dylan healthy. And even as I did so, I knew that it wasn’t my choice to make. People pray all the time for people to be healed from things much worse than a slow-moving virus. And not everyone gets what they want.
But on Sunday morning, Dylan woke up before I did. (I slept very late.) He went downstairs and got some water and pineapple juice – and drank them. He went into the fridge and pulled out some leftover pizza, and reheated it. He ate three slices, drank some more water, took his vitamins – and then went upstairs to take a shower and do homework.
For sure, I thought, he is better.
But he is not better. His fever came back in the late afternoon. By evening, it was more than 103. He was in bed – again – by 8:00.
I am thinking about his school work, how much he has to do, how little time there is left in the quarter. I have emailed his teachers and his case manager. I am doing what I can to make sure they know the extent of this illness.
But I don’t care about his school work. I just want him to get better. I want the fever to go away. I want him to wake up well, and stay well.
I will be praying again tonight.