First Trip to the Emergency Room

We took Nathan to the Emergency Room on Friday night. Probably didn't need to, but I figured better to be safe than sorry.
We put Nathan down for an early-evening nap about 6 o'clock on Friday. We were having friends over, and he was tired and rubbing his eyes (he'd woke up from his afternoon nap at 2), so rather than having an all-evening crankfest (during which I'd have to be holding him constantly), we put him down for a nap.
An hour and a half later, we woke him up so he'd be able to go to bed at a semi-normal time. I brought him down and he kind of talked (babbled) to everyone at the table. I noticed he shivered some. Then he shivered some more, and his arms broke out in goosebumps.
We took his temperature, and it was 102. It kind of alarmed me, because he'd been perfectly fine all afternoon - I'd been gone cleaning and babysitting, and he was happy and played with Paul the whole time I was gone. After I got home, he was happy, but got a little cranky (but it was normal I-need-a-nap cranky), which is why we put him down.
We gave him some Tylenol, and went into the living room to visit and play games. Even though there were two other couples and one little boy here, he didn't even try to socialize. He just sat on my lap with his head on my chest, which is totally out of character for him.
An hour later, I took his temperature again, and it was up to 104. I figured the Tylenol should have kicked in by then, so I called the hospital to get an opinion. The nurse said to alternate Tylenol with ibuprofin, every two hours, give him a lukewarm bath, or put ice packs against his chest. We didn't have any ibuprofin, and I figured if he was shivering anyways, a cool bath or ice packs weren't a good idea.
As I held him, I noticed his heart was beating really, really fast - almost fluttering - and he was panting. Dan (who's taken EMT classes) tried to take his pulse, but it was too fast to count. After everyone left, Nathan started whimpering, then all the sudden he stopped and his breathing slowed down. I thought he'd went to sleep, but when I looked at him, his eyes were half open. I laid him down in my arms, and his eyes were kind of glazed and he was floppy. I freaked out a little. But then he lifted his arm and pointed at something. I breathed a little easier.
Paul and I talked, and decided to go into town - we needed to get the ibuprofin anyways, and if the temp wasn't down, we were going to take him into the emergency room. On the way, we wracked our brains trying to figure out what could be causing the fever. We were pretty sure he hadn't eaten anything that would cause it, plus we figured if it was food-related, he'd be throwing up or something else. I wondered if he could have picked something up from the kitten I found. Had he acted in any other way like he didn't feel well, being cranky or anything, I don't think we would have worried as much. But to go from being perfectly fine, to having this really high fever and being lethargic baffled me.
When we got to town, while Paul went into Walgreens to get the ibuprofin, I took Nathan's temperature, and it was up another half degree. I also got a pulse, since he was laying so still, and it was 160/minute. When Paul got back to the car, we decided to go on over to the hospital.
We got a little attitude from the nurse when we got there. She's the one I had talked to on the phone, and she was like, "Well, did you give him the ibuprofin?" I told her we had to come in to town anyways to get it, and since the Tylenol hadn't even touched the fever, we were a little worried. But the whole time we were there, we just got this attitude behind everything she said that was like, "You guys really don't need to be here."
Luckily, they weren't that busy - there was only one other patient, so we got to see a doctor pretty quickly. She looked him over, and agreed that his heart was racing, but told us that a rapid heart beat is a side-effect of a high fever. (I had never heard that.) Then she looked into his ears, and found the problem. He has an ear infection. I was surprised, because first off - we'd just been to the doctor a week before, and she said his ears looked great, and also, he hadn't been cranky or fussy, or rubbing on his ear or anything. But I was also relieved, because now we knew there was a reason for the fever. And she said a sudden high temperature could cause seizures, especially when you try to bring it down by giving them a cool bath. (Take that, Nurse Attitude! I should have told the doctor that's what their nurse reccomended, though....)
We still didn't feel bad for bringing him in, despite Nurse Attitude's little comments. We figured it was better to go just to be sure, rather than regret it later if it was something serious (like measles or meningitis) and we went too late. Plus, being Friday, we probably would have ended up in the emergency room anyways before Monday, since the doctor's office was closed.
Oh well. I have no regrets for how we did it. The only thing I'm apprehensive of is how much they'll stick it to us in the bill. Which we probably won't get for about four months. Oh well.