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[personal profile] pegkerr
Delia's fever was 101 + this morning, and the rash was continuing to spread. I called the clinic, and then took her into Children's Hospital, and we more or less spent the day there.

They ordered a bunch of blood tests, because they were investigating several possibilities, including Kawasaki and a different tick-borne illness with a name I can't remember [edited to add: it was Ehrlichiosis. Thanks, [livejournal.com profile] porphyrin ]. Delia was indignant about having her blood drawn again and wept again. Then she slept, arm around her teddy bear, and we waited for the results. And waited and waited.

When the doctor came back in to report that all the tests were negative, her rash was gone, and she woke up feeling perkier than she had in days. The fever was gone. Finally.

I told the doctor I felt a little sheepish about coming in, since she was obviously over whatever-it-was. He told me not to feel that way, that he wouldn't have ordered all those tests if she had looked in the morning as well as she did now.

Our best guess is that it was just a mysterious virus, not to be identified, which had lasted longer than usual, but now seems to have run its course. We anticipate that she will be back at daycare tomorrow.

Thank you, all, [livejournal.com profile] aome and [livejournal.com profile] porphyrin especially, for your messages, cards and kind thoughts, and for answering my questions. This has been just about the sickest Delia has been in several years, since the time she had pneumonia, and before that, when she had the spinal fluid buildup when she was six months old. We are lucky to be living in this day and age, when there are tests that can answer questions, and effective treatments available. But sometimes a child's health is threatened for reasons that stubbornly remain mysterious, despite the best efforts of modern medicine, and we only feel relief when the fever breaks, and say, "That's over, whatever it was. Thank heavens she's on the mend."

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-17 07:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cakmpls.livejournal.com
Sometimes kids are just like the car that stops making the funny noise when you get to the mechanic, or the appliance that's running just fine when the repair person gets there . . .

I'm glad, for everyone's sake, that she's getting better!

Thank goodness, indeed.

Date: 2004-08-17 07:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] porphyrin.livejournal.com
Ah, the joy of kids and unexplainable viral illnesses. *sigh*

I'm glad she's feeling so much better, and I hope she continues to stay in her usual state of good health!

The only other tick-borne illness that's common in Minnesota I can think of is Ehrlichiosis. Would that be it? (I know it wouldn't be, say, Q-fever...)







Thank goodness, indeed

Date: 2004-08-18 05:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pegkerr.livejournal.com
Yes, Ehrlichiosis was the one they were testing her for. Thanks.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-17 08:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elisem.livejournal.com
I'm very glad to hear she's on the mend.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-17 08:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] matociquala.livejournal.com
Oh, very good news indeed.

Yay!

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-17 09:11 pm (UTC)
pameladean: (Default)
From: [personal profile] pameladean
I'm glad she's better.

Pamela

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-17 09:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kristenj.livejournal.com
I'm so pleased to hear this! For Delia, and for all of you.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-17 09:16 pm (UTC)
ext_5285: (Default)
From: [identity profile] kiwiria.livejournal.com
I'm so glad she's on the mend!

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-17 09:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whapnoggin.livejournal.com
I'm glad to hear that the illness seems to have cleared up. I think you deserve extra points for keeping your cool with Delia, too--my mom always used to get sort of irritated with me towards the end of a long time abed.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-17 11:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jbru.livejournal.com
Good to hear Delia's feeling better, even if she had to endure more needle pokes, the poor thing.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 01:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dd-b.livejournal.com
I'm very glad she is (seems to be) better.

It must be very frazzling; perhaps even worse than if it's you yourself with weird medical problems.

Do no, *do NOT*, feel bad about taking her in this last time. One of those tests could have been *positive*, the only *good* way to know is to test. (You can also find out the bad way, also known as too late.)

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 03:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pinkfinity.livejournal.com
Oh, what a relief. So good to hear that she's on the mend - not we're probably not an eighth as relieved as you. All our love from Miami!

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 04:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aome.livejournal.com
Phew. I'm so glad she's better now. Given how high her fever got, persistently, I'd be worried, too. How's her energy? Can you go back to work today?

*points to icon* Flowers to you, for all you've done as an attentive and worried mom.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 05:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pegkerr.livejournal.com
She's going back to the YMCA today, although she's not very pleased about it. There's no doubt she's physically better, but emotionally, she's rather fragile. It's going to take a day or two before she's really herself again.

Thanks for the flowers!

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 04:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] papersky.livejournal.com
I'm so glad she's feeling better. Kids do have a tremendous resilience, much more so than adults.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 06:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] baldanders.livejournal.com
I am so relieved to read this!

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 07:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aeditimi.livejournal.com
I am glad to hear that your little one is feeling better. You seem to have remained relatively panic-free through her mysterious illness, a trait my mom never mastered (most recently, she rushed my twenty-year-old sister to the hospital for what turned out to be a bit of strep throat and a fever of about 99). Not that I blame her at all. I'd be beside myself, I'm sure.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 08:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rivka.livejournal.com
Oh gosh, I'm so glad to hear it.

Don't feel foolish for taking her to the ER. It was the right thing to do, and all the blood tests they did really are proof of that.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 09:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com
Glad to hear she's doing better.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 10:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jemyl.livejournal.com
I am so glad to hear that Delia is on the mend. When my girls were little and had mysterious viruses like that with a rash, it was termed "roseola" and sometimes, and I never could figure out how, Rubella or three day measles. What I always thought was hilarious after the fact was that if the doc said rubella the first time, all the subsequent HAD to be roseola as supposedly one can only get the three day measles once. I don't believe that either as each of us has as individual an immune system as we do other individual characteristics. We immunize our children now, and I often wonder how long it will be before one of the dreaded childhood diseases mutates to a form which is not covered by the vaccines. Sometimes I think we protect ourselves to much that we end up with worse than what we are protecting ourselves against.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 10:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jemyl.livejournal.com
That should be "protect ourselves so much"! Goodness, I surely know that usage. I have lazy fingers today I guess. Using to or two for too is one of my pet pieves and then I go and make a typo that looks as if I did it. ARGH!

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 10:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] holyoutlaw.livejournal.com
And again: I'm really glad to hear Delia is better. I also agree that it was a good idea to bring her in to the hospital.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 10:54 am (UTC)
kate_nepveu: sleeping cat carved in brown wood (Default)
From: [personal profile] kate_nepveu
Glad to get to this as I work my way through the backlog. I hope she and the rest of the family continue to recover well.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 11:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] trinker.livejournal.com
Thank you for sharing this news! Yaay!

(no subject)

Date: 2004-08-18 04:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] skylarker.livejournal.com
I'm glad to hear that Delia came through okay.

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