Thanksgiving and a Cold Virus

On Thanksgiving, Keira woke up and Ryan brought her into our bedroom to see me since I had been gone for two days in the hospital and she had not seen me since Tuesday afternoon when they dropped me off at the hospital.

Her hand felt warm so I checked her head, and it was definitely hot. She had been coughing overnight and so we checked her temperature:  101.9 degrees. Since her pediatrician's office was closed, we spent the day giving her Motrin every 6 hours to keep her fever down.  She would not take the medicine via dropper: we tried and this involved shoving it into her mouth which at one point she gagged and threw up the medicine and apple juice she had been drinking all over me.  So we resorted to mixing it into applesauce during the day and apple juice at night. She was pretty low-key all day Thursday and ended up spending the night sleeping in our bed that night because she was so sick with fever and her cough.

On Friday morning, we took Keira's temperature and it was 102.9 degrees before her next dose of Motrin. Shortly after that dose, Ryan took her to the pediatrician's office during their sick clinic. They got there bright and early and only had to wait a couple of minutes before seeing the doctor. They tested her for the flu, strep, and a bacterial infection, all of which came back negative, so she was diagnosed with a cold virus. She tends to run high fevers when she is sick (whether it be with a cold virus or ear infection). The doctor said to keep her away from me (too late!), keep her hydrated, and just keep up with the Motrin and alternate with Tylenol every three hours if needed. If the fever didn't break by Sunday, then we were to bring her back in to the office on Monday.

The fever finally broke by 5 pm on Saturday afternoon, but her cough still lingered. By this point her voice was a bit scratchy and she had a runny nose every so often throughout the day. She was in better spirits on Friday and Saturday, and definitely acting more herself by Sunday.  The cough lingered throughout the week, so Thursday night Ryan decided to take her back to the doctor's office on Friday morning.

On Friday morning, Ryan and Keira headed back in to the sick clinic. It turns out she has Bronchitis, but they caught it early. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic and she has now taken it for three days. She is getting better, but the doctor said the cough could linger for 2-3 weeks. Hopefully she is on the mend!

Unfortunately, Ryan came down with this virus as well.  It hit him the Friday after Thanksgiving. He felt pretty horrible all week, but is feeling a lot better this weekend.

This little piggy...

Tonight after going potty, a truly terrible event occurred. Keira was grabbing for her sippy cup full of water off the bathroom counter and it slipped out of her hand. I could see it falling, but was unable to catch it before it fell...with full vertical force on the big toe of my right foot. It was quite painful and I was in severe pain for several hours. I even called Ryan on the phone to ask him how I would know if my toe was broken and broke down crying while talking to him as it hurt that badly. A bruise showed up pretty quickly.

After putting Keira to bed for the night with some difficulty, I spent the rest of the evening icing the toe and keeping it elevated. The pain lessened some before I headed to bed, but I tossed and turned quite a bit trying to get comfortable without hurting the toe. This morning I awoke to find that the toe felt much better and I was able to get around today without much hobbling. Tomorrow the real test will come when I try to put on sneakers and go to my speed walking class.

At one point last night, I equated the pain I was feeling to the pain I felt while in labor before birth to Keira. Yes, it hurt A LOT!

I now have some bright blue bruising on my toe. So beautiful! The photo really doesn't do it justice.
Who knew a 14 oz. sippy cup could pack such a punch?!?

Broken Fever

After another sleep-interrupted night for our family, Keira's fever finally broke sometime during the night. We woke her up at 1:45 in the morning and gave her Motrin even though she wasn't very warm. We didn't want to risk it! She of course fully woke up and thought it was time to party. She found laying in Mommy and Daddy's bed to be the most exciting thing ever. I finally had to put her in her bed and let her cry (she was very mad!) for several minutes until she figured out that we weren't coming back in for her. When she woke up at 7:45 for the next dose, her temperature was normal so we delayed giving her any meds.

Since she still had a fever last night, we decided to take her into see the pediatrician this morning despite not having a fever before we left for the doctor's office. Yesterday her temp hadn't been elevated until 7-9 hours after the last dose of Motrin. If we waited to see if she had a fever at 10, then we wouldn't have gotten to the pediatrician's office until 10:40 or so and then have to wait who knows how long to see a doctor. Better safe than sorry was our mantra! So we arrived at the ped's office at about 9:35. The waiting room was full! I guess that's what happens when you have three offices and only one of them has walk-in hours on Saturday. We waited two hours before they called us back to the exam room, then we were in there for about 45 minutes. Short story: fever gone with temp down to 98.6 with 10 1/2 hours since last dose of Motrin. White patches at back of throat almost gone. Urine culture from ER came back negative for UTI.

Baby all fixed up and in good spirits. She fell asleep within minutes of getting in the car to go home and I was able to get her take a nap when she got home. She slept for a good 1-1/2 hours and I did too. It's now time for Mommy to recover from the stress of the last three days! I took a nap too and woke up with a headache and feel not so good. Probably the release of all that stress!

Now we just cross our fingers that she doesn't come down with something from the waiting room this morning!

A high fever, a febrile seizure, and an ambulance ride...

Keira awoke at 3:30 am early Wednesday morning with a fever. I gave her Motrin and it was about an hour until she went back to sleep for about an hour. She woke up again at 6:30, but pretty quickly went back to sleep. I canceled our activities for the day, and we spent the day at home with my friend Gabrielle coming over for lunch. Throughout the day on Wednesday, Keira was in pretty good spirits despite the fever. At 4:30, I gave her the next dose of Tylenol and her fever was high at 103 degrees. I had a game night planned with some girlfriends so I went to that and got back at about 10 pm. I typed up the Chuck E. Cheese blog entry, then went upstairs to get Ryan so we could check on Keira.

Ryan and I woke Keira up at around 10:30 that night to give her the next dose of Tylenol. She was very warm and sort of disoriented. She did not want to take the medicine and it took us a while to get some in her. She was fighting us. Seconds after taking the first half of the Tylenol dosage, Keira had a seizure at 10:40 for about 2 minutes. She never stopped breathing or anything, her entire body just seized up and sort of convulsed (not violently) with her limbs stiff and her feet pointed down, her eyes open, and gurgling, ragged breath coming out of her mouth. Ryan immediately called 911 (while she was still seizing) and a firetruck and ambulance arrived at our house within five minutes. When she came out of the seizure she immediately began crying and was very upset. While waiting for the EMTs to arrive, we stripped her down to her diaper to help cool her down. The EMTs checked her out and got the details of what had happened. I think her temperature was at 104 or so when they checked it at that time. They said we needed to take to the hospital to get her fever down and have her checked out. I dressed her in a bodysuit and gave her to Ryan so that I could change out of my pajamas. We wrapped her in a blanket, grapped her diaper bag, my wallet (for her insurance card) and some extra diapers, then ran out to the ambulance. The temperature outside had already dropped into the mid-teens so it was very cold out.

I held Keira in my lap on the stretcher while we were taken to the nearest hospital in the ambulance. Ryan was to meet us at the ER in our car. He was already there when Keira and I were rolled out of the ambulance on the stretcher. When we got to the ER, her fever was up to 104.9 and the nurses administered Motrin to bring the fever down. Keira was very upset and crying a lot and wanted me and only me to hold her. By 12:30 when the fever had dropped substantially, Keira was in much better spirits and no longer crying all the time, playing with Daddy and his cell phone. Her fever was down to 99.3 by about 1:00 am. Since the tests for flu and RSV came back negative and the two X rays taken of her chest did not show anything wrong, the seizure was diagnosed as a febrile seizure and we were sent home with instructions to give her Motrin and Tylenol alternately every four hours and to follow-up with the pediatrician the next day. I figured the fever might be due to the vaccinations that she had received on Monday afternoon, so the diagnosis made sense. When we got her in the car to go home, she was smiling and making happy noises and was very happy to be in her car seat and familiar surroundings. After stopping at a 24-hour pharmacy for more Motrin, we got home at about 1:30 and she went to sleep almost immediately.

Needless to say, Ryan and I didn't sleep much that night. The Tylenol and Motrin kept her fever down. When she woke up at 9:30 that morning, her fever was back up to 102.5 so we gave her the next dose of Motrin. We got to the pediatrician at about 10:15 that morning and were there for over two hours. At about 11 that morning, here fever was down to 101. The doctor did not think that the vaccinations would cause such a high fever, so some tests were run on Keira to try to determine the cause. A throat culture determined it was not Strep, and a blood count came back with Keira's white blood cell count elevated with anti-viral and anti-bacterial about equal. So it was thought that it was a viral infection. We were told that if she still has a fever on Saturday, that we should bring her into the office again.

Thursday afternoon when she woke up from her nap, her temperature was not elevated, but we gave her Motrin anyway. When we put her to bed at 8:00 pm, her temp was back up to 100.6 so we put her to bed knowing that we would need to wake her up at 9:30 to give her another dose of Motrin. At 9:15 she was very restless in her crib, so we woke her up, gave her the next dose of Motrin, and her temperature was up to 101.9. At 3:15 am Friday, we again woke her up to give her another dose of Motrin. When she woke up the next morning at 8:30, her temperature was down to 99.0 deg. I thought the fever had broken. However, at a little after 10 am, she was feeling a little warmer so I checked her temperature and it was back up to 101.0 so I gave her more Motrin. At 4:10, it was time for another dose, but her temp was 98.6 so I checked her again at 5:00, now it was only 99.6. So we waited until bedtime at 7:45 to check her temperature again. This time it was 101.3 so we gave her more Motrin and put her to bed for the night. We'll wake her again at 1:45 to give her another dose. It's looking pretty likely that we'll be making that trip to the pediatrician's office in the morning.

Throughout Thursday and Friday, Keira has been in good spirits, eating fairly well, and sleeping well albeit fitful. I am just so thankful that the seizure was not as bad as it could have been.

It turns out that febrile seizures are not uncommon and generally do not cause any long-term effects. However, there is now a higher chance that she may experience one again so we will have to be more aggressive in our treatment of fevers. Whereas previously the doctor didn't see a need for Motrin until the fever was 102 deg or higher, now it is recommended that we give her Motrin for fevers above 100.4 deg. Whereas previously, we could have given her Motrin once at bedtime, then only give another dosage if she woke up again during the night needing one, now it is recommended that we wake her up after six hours for the next dose.

I am just thankful that my beautiful baby girl is okay. I hope that she never experiences another seizure (for her sake and ours) like the one she had on Wednesday night, but I realize that there is a chance that she will. Hopefully tomorrow we will have more news as to why this fever has not yet broken. I will post an update tomorrow night.