Another Episode for Eloise
It started last Tuesday when Trey got a call from this mom that Eloise felt like she had a fever and was very lethargic, only wanting to be held. Trey picked her up later that day and when he got her home she had a temperature of around 103ish. Not too bad but something to watch. By the morning her fever was up to 105 but after motrin went back down to 100. As soon as the motrin wore off she was again up to 105.1 and then 106. After what we went through at the end of June I decided to give the doctors office a call to get an appointment that day. I did not want to end up at the ER again later that night. I was lucky that Dr. App had an opening at 3:15 that afternoon. My dad came and picked up Cecelia so that I could just take Eloise and not worry about Cecelia. Once at the doctor's office her temp was down to 101. Dr. App came in, saw Eloise and right away starting ordering bloodwork, xrays a shot of rocephin and 5 days of zythromax. She just didn't even look well and we were fearful she was going through the same thing as in June. While waiting for them to take blood I noticed that Eloise was feeling hot again. I asked a MA to take her temp which read at 104 and then gave her a dose of tylenol. After the bloodwork was completed we headed downstairs for a set of xrays to rule out pneumonia. (On a side note there was a guy that came in to the office right when we first did and we both down at xray. His name was before ours on the list but when we was called back he asked the intake coordinator to take use first. He said to me that Eloise looked like she needed to get home. I was so thankful to him to allow us to go first and not have to wait any longer.) After xrays we headed back home where Eloise continued to go up and down with her fevers once again reaching 107 and then dropping down to 105 when the motrin ran out and staying around 102 with motrin. On Thursday I emailed Dr. App to give him a report of her recent temperatures as he had asked me to touch base with him. The first 24 hour cultures showed no growth but the bloodwork did show elevated WBC again. We went back in on Friday morning to talk with dr. app and review hew bloodwork. We discovered her bloodwork looked very similar to that of June with elevated WBC of 19 this time, 22 last time but it was also taken within 24 hours of her first fever unlike June which was 2 1/2 days after onset of fever. While in the office she had no fever so there was no need for anymore shots. They drew more blood so we could she how her numbers were doing. Dr. App and I discussed what the next step would be and agreed that we wanted to get her numbers during a healthy time period so we could compare. It was also decided that if this should happen again Dr. App would send us to a pediatric immunologist to see what is causing the high fevers and spikes in WBC. Eloise's fever did continue to go down on Friday with highs of only 102.8 and then continued to disappear throughout the weekend. She started to eat and play again on Sunday afternoon and you could see she was feeling much better.
Of course our heads continue to run with all the thoughts of what could be going on in that little tiny body of hers. I really do feel there is a pattern to her fevers. I can recall 6 times since January that she has had a high fever, 3 of which we have gone to seek medical treatment. All of which happen at the end of the month. Doing our own research knowing the bloodwork results and feeling that there is a pattern to the fevers with no other known causes or symptoms we have narrowed our finding down to one syndrome that fits her profile. I am not saying we found the cause of her fevers or are diagnosing her. This just gives us something to go from and look for if another episode does occur. What we are researching is a syndrome called PFAPA (Periodic fever, Aphthous-stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis). I am not going to go into all the details of the syndrome here but you can read more about it if you are interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_fever,_aphthous_stomatitis,_pharyngitis_and_adenitis
So now it is just a wait and see approach. We will get another set of bloodwork in about 2 weeks when we feel she is healthy and then wait to see if the fevers come back.
So far the only side effects we have seen from the fevers is her lack of appetite during the fevers which tend to cause her to lose some weight while she is sick but then her appetite seems to come back and a loss of hair. I first noticed it a few weeks after her fever and at first thought it was due to lack of nutrients from her diet and after talking with some people realized it was a result of her high fevers. I did mention this to the doctor this last time just to make sure it wasn't another symptom. Just today Trey noticed a gob of hair was lingering on her clothes. We fear she may end up bald if these fevers continue but if that is the worse of the side effects we can handle that. She does look very cute in hats:)
Of course our heads continue to run with all the thoughts of what could be going on in that little tiny body of hers. I really do feel there is a pattern to her fevers. I can recall 6 times since January that she has had a high fever, 3 of which we have gone to seek medical treatment. All of which happen at the end of the month. Doing our own research knowing the bloodwork results and feeling that there is a pattern to the fevers with no other known causes or symptoms we have narrowed our finding down to one syndrome that fits her profile. I am not saying we found the cause of her fevers or are diagnosing her. This just gives us something to go from and look for if another episode does occur. What we are researching is a syndrome called PFAPA (Periodic fever, Aphthous-stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis). I am not going to go into all the details of the syndrome here but you can read more about it if you are interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_fever,_aphthous_stomatitis,_pharyngitis_and_adenitis
So now it is just a wait and see approach. We will get another set of bloodwork in about 2 weeks when we feel she is healthy and then wait to see if the fevers come back.
So far the only side effects we have seen from the fevers is her lack of appetite during the fevers which tend to cause her to lose some weight while she is sick but then her appetite seems to come back and a loss of hair. I first noticed it a few weeks after her fever and at first thought it was due to lack of nutrients from her diet and after talking with some people realized it was a result of her high fevers. I did mention this to the doctor this last time just to make sure it wasn't another symptom. Just today Trey noticed a gob of hair was lingering on her clothes. We fear she may end up bald if these fevers continue but if that is the worse of the side effects we can handle that. She does look very cute in hats:)
 |
| You know your 22 month old is really sick when she lays on the couch like this for 2 hours at a time and doesn't move an inch:( |
Comments