Friday evening M and I actually went to bed right after we put A down; He had been working late all week which resulted in all of us getting to bed late too. Saturday morning A woke up crying around 6:30 or 7, she definitely felt warm so I took her temperature and it was 103.7. Unfortunately we've dealt with high fever before with her, so I gave her some children's Tylenol and put her back to sleep. Most of the day she hardly drank or ate anything. M and I just assumed her on and off fever and lack of appetite all day Saturday was just associated with teething. She has two teeth coming in right now, so it made the most sense.
Sunday Morning she woke up crying around 4am. As soon as I picked her up from her crib, I knew that her fever had skyrocketed. She wasn't just warm or even hot, her poor little body was on fire with a temperature reading at 105.3! M and I were scared to say the least. I called the answering service for our pediatricians office and they asked us a few questions about her demeanor. They said to give her some Tylenol and take her to the nearest emergency room and follow up with the PCP first thing Monday.
Literally 20 minutes later she was being poked and prodded with an IV, a catheter for a urine sample, blood drawn for various tests, flu tests, strep tests, chest x-rays, etc. After spending roughly 7 hours waiting for answers we got none. Everything had come back negative. We're still waiting on results from a few blood tests, but ultimately the only thing we know is her white blood cell count is elevated. That along with an exceptionally high fever only tells us that her body is fighting something off. She did get a strong dose of antibiotics in her IV just to try and knock out any sort of bacterial infection that may be there and also sent home with a script for antibiotics.
We left the ER around 11 am and her temp was 97, we got home around noon and it was already back up to 103. We gave her some more medicine and waited for it to go down. At this point we had figured out that if we missed the time frame to administer another dose of medicine, even if only by 15 minutes, her fever would start spiking back up. Once her fever hits about 104, she stops responding to her name and acts as if she can't hear us at all. She either becomes very lethargic or is very irritable and can't seem to get comfortable.
Last night she woke up several times screaming and thrashing around. Neither of us could get her to calm down. When we woke up this morning her temp was back up to 104.7. I called as soon as the office opened and scheduled an appointment. Turns out the pediatrician said nothing different than the ER. Apparently there are thousands of viruses and that seems to be what she has, some type of viral infection. Fevers can last 5-7 days so we just have to continue rotating the Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours and continue to give the antibiotics. The screaming and thrashing about at night is most likely due to all of the trauma she's gone through this weekend and/or she's waking up realizing she doesn't feel good and that's how she's communicating it to us.
Needless to say M and I were both very scared. He ran a few red lights on the way to the ER and didn't want to talk about it until we got her in the ER and her temp was brought down. With A only being 16 months old she still can't talk enough to tell us if and where anything is hurting her. Thus the need to fight for her. We somewhat felt like we've kind of had the run around this weekend. "If it spikes again bring her to the ER." "If it's gets worse bring her back tomorrow." "If it lasts more than a week we'll talk about different options." "Fevers that high aren't uncommon in children." !!!! I'm sure you can only imagine our frustration.
At the end of the day we have finally realized that God is the Great Physician and our Wonderful Healer! We have to put all of our faith in Him. Not just simply pray for her and still worry, but actually believe that He is going to work wonders in our daughter's health. Still, the Word says that when 2 or more are gathered in His name He will be there. I fervently ask each of you who reads this story to please take a moment or two to pray for our baby girl. In addition to praying for our baby, pray for all of the mommas and daddys who go through situations much worse and still are empty handed and have no answers. Going through this situation has definitely given me a heart for those parents, I can't imagine being in their shoes.
"Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them." - Psalm 107:19-20
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| Snuggling with Daddy and her baby trying to get some rest; I'm praying we can all get a peaceful nights sleep |
UPDATE!! This post was written on a Monday night and by Thursday she was finally down to a low grade fever, no higher than 99. Friday she was officially fever free for 24 hours with no medicine being given. We never did get any definite answers from the doctors about what made her so sick, but she is healed now and that's all that matters.
Last weekend I was putting her toys in the toy box when I noticed some mold on the baby dolls clothes. Turns out the bottom of the toy box was covered in black mold! I have no idea how it happened, but many toys and stuffed animals had to be thrown away. M and I boiled water on the stove and filled the bath tub with it and added some bleach and let the plastic toys soak. I did the same with the stuffed animals that appeared to be free of mold, but we wanted to be sure. Then I put them through the wash in hot water and dried them on high heat. I soaked the toy box in hot water and bleach as well. Everything is put away for now. We're giving it about a month to see if anything starts to come back, then we'll put the toys back out. For now she plays with 2 baby dolls that weren't kept in there and she "reads" her books a lot. I don't think she really cares about the toys being gone.
Thank you for all of the prayers and kind messages that were sent to M and myself, we appreciate all of the love shown to us! :)
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