One sick witchling and two very worried parents...
Wednesday, Jun. 23, 2004 10:44 pm
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I had to take the witchling to the hospital last night. We were in the ER for like eight hours...

Since Saturday she has been sick. It started with complaints of a tummy ache. Then on Sunday she woke up with a fever. I don’t know what her temperature was because I didn’t have a thermometer. (Bad witchy momma!) Anyway, I gave her some Tylenol, and her fever went down. So we went to my Gran’s for a father’s day cookout. The witchling was fine and running around for about an hour, then she got into her bed (she’s been staying there off and on) and fell asleep. She wanted no part of the party, or anything to eat. I thought it was just a little bug and she’d feel better after a nap.

Around six thirty or so, my Gran took her temp and it was 100.3. So James and I decided to run to the grocery store and grab her some Tylenol. We were only gone about forty minutes, but by the time we returned her fever had spiked to 104!

She took the medicine, and it immediately went down again. She was hungry, and ate a can of ravioli and then we went home and put her to bed.

Monday morning she perked up enough to cuddle in bed with James and me. Her temp hovered around 99 and she seemed to be on the mend by the time James left for work (which was around 2:30). Then she threw up. After that she didn’t want to move or drink anything at all. Her temp started to climb, so I convinced her to take some chewable Tylenol (she hates the stuff). She choked it down and then it came right back up again. She wouldn’t stop crying, and I started getting nervous because she would not drink anything because she was scared she’d throw up. I checked her temp (James went out and bought a thermometer before he left for work) and it was up to 101.6. But her skin felt so much hotter.

I ran a cool bath for her, thinking that might help. It didn’t. She threw up several more times and barely drank a thing by the time I put her to bed.

Tuesday morning I went in to check on her and noticed the skin around her eyes was red. More like magenta. It looked like someone had punched both her eyes. James thought it might be because she was a little dehydrated, so I spent most of the day trying to get her to take (and keep down) fluids. I tried ginger ale, water, Popsicles, juice, broth,-even some jello… But she refused everything but the teeniest sip of water now and then.

I normally don’t call her doctor if she has a little bug, because they just tell me it has to work its way through and to give her fluids… But the redness around her eyes was scary. It kept getting darker, or brighter I guess. It looked like a mask. So I called. They couldn’t fit me in, and told me I could either take her to a walk in clinic (the one they recommended is in a really bad neighborhood) or I could take her to the emergency room. I opted for the ER, and my mom came and took us there.

We arrived at 4:45 pm.

During the initial exam, the nurse thought she was a little dehydrated but would be fine. She said the red mask was from straining when vomiting. At 7 pm we finally made it into an exam room.

The doctor was very interested in the redness around the witchling’s eyes. He said it was definitely not from strain, and it looked like a rash. He wanted to know if she had any other rashes or bug bites. Which made me remember a funny heat rash I noticed on her last Tuesday. It was on her upper left thigh, right where the elastic band of her underwear tended to fall. It was a raised red welt, kind of oval in shape, about two inches long. At the time I dismissed it as heat rash… Then on Sunday I noticed it had turned dark purple in color. I thought that was weird, but stupid me, I just powdered it and continued to dress her.

I showed him the spot, and it had spread and turned bright pink. Its now about six inches across and maybe three wide. He said it definitely is not heat rash. At this point he had no idea what was wrong with her and he wanted to try and get some fluid in her while he ran some tests. They gave the witchling a cup of apple juice and we were alone again. The head of the ER came in and examined her, but he was stumped as well. He thought it might be strep throat, so they did a culture. They said it might be some weird virus or some bug may have bitten her. He also mentioned scarlet fever, lyme disease, and pavo (parvo?) virus.

At that point the doctor noticed I am pregnant. He got nervous about that and called my ob-gyn to talk about the fact that I have been exposed to whatever it is my daughter has.

Then the witchling threw up the juice, and they decided she would have to have an IV to replenish her fluids, since she can’t keep anything down.

That was so awful. My poor baby. The nurse butchered her. Because she is so little, he had a lot of trouble finding a proper vein. He found one in her right arm, but it collapsed on him when he got the needle in. So he had to do the other arm. The poor baby was so brave! She just laid there quietly, with this stricken look on her face and tears in her eyes…

When James finally came it was after 11:30. (I called him at ten but it takes an hour or more to get home from his work) The witchling just kept saying she wanted to go home. She was so weak, it was scary. They gave us a prescription for antibiotics, in case it was strep, and sent us home.

By that point it was almost one am!

This morning her temp was at 99.5 and she still had that red mask on her face. James took a sick day at work and we took her to the doctor this afternoon, but they were stumped as well. She was examined by four doctors, and no one knows what is wrong with her. The strep test came back negative, so they said to stop the antibiotics. The other bloodwork hasn’t come back yet. The urine test shows she has blood in her urine.

They took more blood, to test her for everything under the sun and sent her home again.

I am freaked out.

I want to know what is wrong with my daughter! And I am worried about how this will effect the one on the way as well!

She is doing better, her temp is going down and she is managing to keep down both ginger ale and a little jello.

So that is something.

I would appreciate your prayers and good thoughts everyone... This is so awful, so scary. They have no idea what it is. None at all. Has anyone ever heard of symptoms like these? I mean, basically, her tummy hurts, she is throwing up, she has a fever that is generally low, in the 99's, but sometimes jumps up for a little while before going back down. Her head hurts and she was complaining of neck pain. And then there are those weird rashes.

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