I got my kid to the hospital before it was too late. Somehow he contracted bacterial meningitis, probably due to his cochlear implant (it raises the risk, plus he's already had a viral strain). It truly was a fluke that we recognized it. Meningitis looks so much like a bad case of the flu. I learned a lot about detection after it killed my brother. I had kiddo try to touch his chin to his chest. He screamed in pain. He was really sensitive to light. The scariest thing was how panicky he seemed, as though he knew something was really wrong.
That's when we scooped him up and went to the ER. Scared the shit out of me. Scared the shit out of the ER doc. They started him on IV antibiotics and had Children's National come get him in an ambulance.