Sometimes we don’t really even think about a word until we have to see it, feel it, and live it, over and over. Take the word fever. We have all had a fever at some point, whether during a flu episode, virus or sinusitis. It lasts a couple of days, maybe, and we probably don’t even check it ourselves too much, unless we have an easy-to-use tympanic (ear probe) thermometer. And we probably only have one of those if we have children.

Fever on a child, taken with a tympanic, is over 100.4 degrees. Imagine you child’s fever rising to 104 degrees and above, every four to six hours, despite the repeated dosages of junior strength Motrin, for five days straight. Imagine how fun it is to deal with a raging nine-year-old hallucinating about game shows and making purchases, and having to cajole her into taking the ibuprofen. Imagine your glee at having to rise at 3 am and 4 am, for five nights in a row to check on her, re-administer the medication, and often give a cool bath to lower her temperature. Imagine her horror at the taste and consistency, and subsequent vomiting, after administering the awful tasting grape-flavored liquid Tylenol. No, don’t imagine it, because it’s just too painful.

May you never have to endure the discouragement and frustration of an unknown fever/virus on your child, and have to think, feel and live fever.