DS felt poorly on Saturday afternoon and suddenly had a fever of 101.7. He had a headache and sore throat. Sunday morning, he had a fever of around 100 and his throat was super sore so we took him to the urgent care thinking he had strep. The doctor there diagnosed him with Coxackie virus (the virus that causes HFM) but said he had herpangina which is like HFM of only the throat. She said 24 after his fever was gone he should be good. Well he stayed home Monday and Tuesday and had no fever on Tuesday and was feeling great so today he went to daycare. He was perfectly fine if not a little worn out at the end of the day but suddenly after dinner he started screaming that his head (brain, he said) was hurting so bad and also his arms and legs and then he vomitted everywhere. He fell asleep early while I was reading him a book. I am concerned about his headache, vomitting and lethargy after having seemingly recovered and I don't know if I should wake him and take him to the ER/urgent care or just monitor him all night. We have an 18 month old too so it isn't super easy to just spend all night in an ER... 
Any thoughts or experiences????
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Can you call the after hours line? That would be my first step.
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So scary but don't panic! I would also start with an after hours line and see what they recommend!
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I agree with the others. I'd call the after hours line and see what your ped says. Worst case scenario they tell you to bring him to the ER and best case scenario they say to do nothing and you get some piece of mind.
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I would definitely call the after hours line. That's so scary. I hope you can get through quickly. Can one parent stay home with the 18 month old while you bring the big one to the ER, if that's what they recommend?
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@travellingbee: good lord. This just happened to us. So so weird and I was so worried about the head ache too.
We went to emerg (Canada, small town, our doc is closed) three times over the last week (Friday, Sunday, tuesday).
Friday he had had a fever for a couple days (got it on Wednesday, but I did as well) but said his back was so sore. By the time doctor saw him he was fine, Advil kicked in. Saturday he was totally fine. No fever. Normal self. Sunday he was fine but then got pale. Started barfing and had a fever. I was told to bring him back Sunday if he was still bad, so back we went. They said must be a virus. They gave him anti nausea meds and said to keep up Advil. Bring back on Tuesday if fever was still there. And it was. So dh took him on Tuesday. The Advil had kicked in and he was being wild. Doctor said she thought maybe ear infection. He's now been on antibiotics since noon yesterday and (knock on wood) hasn't had a fever since 3am.
So weird. He was constantly complaining about his head. My friends daughter (who plays with my son all the time) was in the ER yesterday while my son was with a fever as well. Today she was crying so hard she puked because her head hurt!! Must be a super weird virus? Anyways. I don't know if my son did have an ear infection, but I think he had something that needed antibiotics. He never complained of an ear ache.
Good luck and keep up with the advil and Tylenol.. if you have something like an after hours line call that and see. We don't have those here.
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I would take him straight to the ER. His headache, vomiting, and lethargy--not to mention the rapid onset after seemingly getting better--are very concerning and would warrant a trip to the ER for me.
Eta: it's probably a routine issue, but it could be a migraine or worse (meningitis).
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The after hours line is never our actual doctors- it's some national bank that alway always recommends taking to the ER. Poor baby. I'm worried about viral meningitis, but my friends whose son had viral meningitis said that they don't do anything in the hospital to treat it other than Tylenol and monitoring. Given that he doesn't have a high fever, I'm not sure about waking him up to bring him to the ER...
ETA: for now DH is laying in his room monitoring and I guess we'll take turns. -
@travellingbee: I'm not sure if this is quite the same in older kids, as we had our meningitis scare when DD2 was under 2 months old, but one thing you want to look for is mottling of the skin (where it looks almost like stained glass) - our nanny noticed this on DD's legs, which was our cue to take her to the ER ASAP. It can be a sign of sepsis. Hopefully you don't see it, but since you're monitoring at home, I thought it was worth mentioning. I would have had no idea what "mottled skin" looked like or meant until our nanny pointed it out to me.
Good luck and stay healthy!
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My DD had herpangina and it took her a full week to be back to normal. The suddenness and intensity of the headache and vomiting would concern me enough to go to the ER.
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@travellingbee: the doctors this week kind of reassured me that with menegitis their neck will be so stiff they won't be able to move their head up and down. It's the first thing that comes up when googling, but none of the three different doctors we saw considered it really after they saw him moving around. His fever wasn't super high either, until Monday it randomly spiked.
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@PinkElephant: good to know-- his skin looks normal right now!
@Mrs. Champagne: yeah his temp was 99.4 a little while ago so not even really a fever. And he was moving his neck fine. He is sleeping peacefully right now. He also can be super dramatic so maybe the pain wasn't as severe as he made it oh to be.., -
@travellingbee: I also thought my son was erring on the side of dramatic/tired, haha.
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Update: he's perfectly normal this morning! No fever no symptoms! 🙄 So weird!
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@Mrs. Pickle: did the herpangina symptoms come and go? He was fine again for 3 days and tonight he started saying he was sick again with a headache and sore throat and then he threw up followed by a fever... Again! I don't even know what to think at this point. It's been a week of on again off again fevers and puking and sore throat!
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@travellingbee: not that I can remember. She had a fever for two days. I think her throat hurt longer than that, but she was only 9 months so she couldn't tell me. She was clingy and nursing a lot for most of the week. She never threw up. I hope he feels better soon.
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