Sunday, January 23, 2011. Mid afternoon Deborah was walking around holding her head complaining that it hurt. I ran my hand across her head and neck; she felt a little warm, so I gave her some acetaminophen for the headache and to help with the fever.
I urged her to rest and take a nap, not an unusual occurrence for her even though she is six years old, and she did. She did not feel much better, but her head did not seem to be hurting her anymore, so I was anticipating another round with cold and flu season and began wondering when the next child would start feeling ill and who it would be?
It was our family night, when everyone makes it a point to be home and spend some time together, even if it is only over a meal - a new tradition for us. Deborah did not really eat much, but we weren't sure if it was not feeling well or the indifferent meal (an attempt at pizza soup went wrong).
Monday arrived and Deborah is still not feeling well; more of a fever, not interested in eating or drinking much, and just generally tired. She will play for a little while, but looses interest after maybe 15-20 minutes, and is content to sit and watch the others. With no other symptoms to go on, I continued with the acetaminophen to try to bring the fever down. Rx? Lots of rest, try to get her to eat a little, and regular doses of fever reducer. Her evening dose was due right as Dan came home from work, about six o'clock, and I was chatting with him about our day as I gave her the meds. She does not like the taste anyway, but this time it did not settle well! She said, "Excuse me,"ran to the bathroom and threw up. Poor sweetie! Rather than try to get her to try again, we just set her up with a pallet outside the bathroom door - she was not interested in going anywhere else - and kept an eye on her. She threw up a couple more times that night and then it seemed as if we were ready to be on the mend. I mean, it was the second day of the fever, throwing up had been done, so what else was there besides rest and recovery? Apparently, quite a lot.
Tuesday morning, hoping we are on the mend, I encourage her to take a shower hoping that will help her feel better. Works for me most of the time. :) After her shower, she mentions that she noticed "spots". Really?! New symptom: tiny spots all over her torso. Not chicken pox; no blisters. More of a dry rash. Nothing on her arms, legs, or face although she is "itchy" and she is rubbing behind her ears (no rash there?) And still with the fever. We begin the process of actually taking her temp. so I have a better of how warm she is getting rather than my time tested "nope you are normal, a little warm, pretty warm, hot, and oh my goodness!" All readings Tuesday are over 101 degrees farenheit. At this point we are a little worried because the symptoms do not seem to match anything we have dealt with before, and with 7 kids we have seen a lot. So, we continue with the Rx of rest, at least trying to get her to drink a little because she still is not interested in eating, and fever meds. By this time we are using ibuprophen and acetaminophen together to try to get that fever down, but with no success. Before bed, we do a bath with Aveno soothing bath wash to try and calm the inflammation.
Wednesday: fever is still hanging in, without regard to the fever reducers we are getting into her. Rash is getting thicker, spreading over more of her torso and back and still itchy. So, we add benedryl to the mix to try and ease her discomfort. She is still tired, but not lethargic; still has some energy to work with. But the combination of symptoms is beginning to give Dan and I some serious concern; what on earth could this be?! Even after a google search of childhood illnesses with a fever and a rash yields no answers; her symptoms simply do not match up. We decide to give it one more night; if she is not better in the morning, off to the doctor we go!
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