Delia is on the mend

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, 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, aome and 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."