Scary Moments

On Thursday, Kennedy fell ill.  She was perfectly fine one minute, and then all of a sudden she had a terrible headache & 103 degree fever.  

The afternoon & evening were spent alternating between Motrin & Tylenol, pushing fluids & lots of cuddles.  Unfortunately, she went to bed feeling miserable.

Friday morning she woke up no better.  The 103 degree fever continued & she spent the better part of the day laying lifeless on the couch.  She still had a bad headache, but didn't complain of anything else hurting.

Around lunch time, I called our doctor & spoke to his nurse.  She said I was doing everything right & to just continue to monitor her closely.

After rest time, Kennedy came downstairs complaining that her neck hurt.  And that is when I internally freaked out.  High fever, headache & stiff neck?!  Those were all symptoms of meningitis.  I quickly called the pediatrician back & requested that we be seen immediately.  

Half an hour later & we were in the doctor's office.

After a thorough exam & many questions, he sat me down & said that he wanted us to go straight to the ER.  He didn't feel comfortable sending us home, and wanted us to go to the hospital to rule out meningitis.  

**Insert freak out moment.  Marc was still out of town, both sets of families live out of town, and it was just me & the girls.  I was scared to death about what could potentially be wrong with my baby girl.**

The ER & staff were amazing.  Our pediatrician had called ahead of time to let them know we were coming, and as soon as we got there, they took us straight back & put us in a room.  The doctor came in & examined KK, and said that he too was worried, and wanted to do a full work up, including blood work & a spinal tap.

Throughout it all, Kennedy was such a strong, brave & courageous little girl.  You can tell from the above picture that she had been crying a lot, but she wanted me to take a picture of her to send to her Daddy & show him her IV.

I am so thankful that my wonderful neighbor came to pick up Ashby.  While she was so wonderful at the pediatrician's office & ER, I did not want her to be there when Kennedy had to have her spinal tap done.  That was just going to be too much for a 4-year old to witness.

I had given Kennedy Tylenol around 3:00 pm & it finally started to take effect while we were in the ER.  She had perked up considerably & was looking much better.  So they decided to wait to see what the urine analysis & blood work showed before deciding if a spinal tap needed to be done.

Unfortunately the blood work showed an elevated white blood cell count, and she had protein & ketones in her urine.  Pair that with her elevated heart rate upon admission, and they felt it was necessary to do the spinal tap.

The spinal tap was awful for me to watch.  There were nine staff in the room, from a couple of respiratory therapists to the anesthesiologist to two doctors & a nurse (I know I'm missing some).  And while they sedated her prior to the spinal tap, seeing your baby girl lifeless with her eyes half open, was a bit too much for this Mama to watch. At one point I had to turn away, while holding her hand, because I thought I was going to throw up.  Or pass out.  Or both.  Luckily the spinal tap only took about 10 minutes & the fluid drained out clear, which was a good sign.

The above picture was as she was coming out of the sedation.  She was quite amusing & it was nice to laugh a couple of times, given what a scary day it had been.  At one point she told me she was wacko.  Ha!  I would agree 100% with that statement!  She was also thrilled that the anesthesia had made her headache go away.  Unfortunately it quickly returned before bed that night.

We were so relieved when they said the spinal tap came back negative, which meant we could rule out meningitis.  Unfortunately, we still did not know why she was still so sick.  They were going to do cultures for the next 24 hours & see if there was any growth, indicating a serious bacterial infection.

Around 9:00 pm we were allowed to go home, with instructions to keep an eye on her throughout the night & keep alternating between Tylenol & Motrin.

Our baby girl woke up the next morning still with a high fever but her terrible headache had subsided a bit.  And for that, we all were very thankful.  She was still lifeless & cried every time she had to walk around, we are assuming due to being achy.  Though at times when the medicine was working, she perked up quite a bit and even colored a little bit with Ashby.

Unfortunately after rest time, her temperature went back to 105.  I texted our doctor, whom had called & texted me several times since the night before.  Side note.  I was so very impressed with his care & attentiveness to our baby girl.  I really did not know what to do besides give her more medicine & open the refrigerator door & stick her head into it.  Which I did.  Seriously.  Her temp needed to come down & fast.

The pediatrician called me a few minutes later & said he had called the ER & there was NO growth from either the urine culture nor the blood work, which indicated that there was no serious bacterial infection.  While I was thrilled to hear that, we still didn't have a reason for the extreme fever & headache.  Ugh.

She went to bed last night with a 101 fever, woke up in the middle of the night with one, and also woke up this morning with the same fever (after a dose of medicine at 2:00 am).  Maybe, just maybe, she was turning a corner?!

Today she actually sat up & read for a little bit, and played with Ashby too.  We were hopeful.  Until around 3:00 pm when Marc took her temperature & said it ranged from 103-105.  Ugh.  We are going on 72 hours straight of a fever.  So more Motrin was given as well as a cool bath, and now her temperature has gone done quite a bit.

Every morning I pray that she wakes up feeling better.  Her headache remains, though is not bad, and now she has a stuffy/runny nose.  Her body is definitely trying to fight off something nasty.  Her pediatrician mentioned yesterday that it may be Roseola.  Although it usually occurs in small children, she has never had it before, so if a rash appears after this high fever disappears then that is what she has.

All I know is that I hate seeing my baby girl sick & would do anything to take it away from her.  I'm praying she is on the mend soon & that Ashby, Marc & I don't get it.  These last few days she has been miserable & it just breaks my heart. :(