Mystery Fever .... Again

I know we need to grateful and happy for our health, and know that things could be a lot worse, but goodness, can't Taylor catch a break?

This little girl is always sick. She was born sick....one issue after another. She's always got a cold, or a cough, or a runny nose, a reaction to one thing or another, a fever, an ear infection, strep throat, a fever, a fever, a fever. You name it, she catches it, and we've got the point!

So, her latest mystery illness is a fever for six days of over 103, topping out at 104.9. Motrin would bring it down to the 101's, but then about 4 hours post Motrin, it would kick back up. I called her ENT surgeon on Weds. to see if he needed to see her, thinking it may be a post-op something. He said to keep an eye on her and if it didn't go down to call her pediatrician, but doubted it was due to her surgery.

So, I kept an eye on it, thinking it will go away and I waited and waited and it never left. So, on Friday I took her to the pediatrician. She was stumped, as always, and ran a series of blood tests and catheterized her to get a urine specimen. She also gave her a shot of Rociphrin and an hour and a half later we were headed home awaiting test results and scheduled to be back at the office the next morning (Saturday) at 8:40.

Taylor had a terrible afternoon and night on Friday and we went to our appt. Saturday morning. When the pediatrician laid eyes on her, she couldn't believe how much worse she looked from the day prior. This tiny little girl who tips the scales at barely over 20 lbs. was losing weight, listless and pale, had dark circles around her eyes and her eyes were traced in redness. She told me that she was going to have her admitted in the hospital. We couldn't take a chance of sending her home and something devastating happening (sounds dramatic, but at this point, it was all a mystery). I agreed and she called the hospital and spoke to the on duty Hospitalist. Unfortunately, they had no beds and two children on a waiting list for a bed in the peds. unit waiting in the ER. So, she had to send us to the ER to take that route and wait our turn.

In the meantime, she wrote a note for us so that I didn't have to explain to each person in our path about the tests run. I had, in hand, the results that had come in from Friday, and that she wanted her admitted. One person read those, and the Dr. at the ER and I had some words exchanged. But needless to say, we had to start from scratch all over again. Blood work x 2, catheterization x 2...and they added a CT scan of her sinuses, adnoids, neck and tonsils. That was to make sure there were no absesses from her surgery just 16 days prior. They also did head, neck, chest and stomach x-rays to check for anything abnormal. Everything seemed to check out within reasonable perameters. We were able to rule out anything post-op related. Her white blood cell count is low, but not dangerous and some levels were showing that it may be a virus. There is also a number in her blood that shows some infection, although we don't know where. So, they put her on an IV of Rocephrin (instead of shooting it into the muscle again) and flushed the drip out to make sure she got every last drop.

The Dr. at the hospital (whom, did I mention is NOT my favorite person!) actually let me decide if I wanted to take her home or stay over. I decided to bring her home. He consulted with the Hospitalist and they both agreed that would be fine. All of the tests that her pediatrician ordered had been performed and we had the results. And I knew she would rest better and be more comfortable at home. So, I brought her home and we are to see her ped. on Monday.

We left the hospital with a diagnosis of 'Fever' and 'Leukopenia' (fancy word for low white blood cell count). We will see her pediatrician Monday and her ENT surgeon Wednesday. Today, she is getting a rash. I looked it up online and it's not fitting the symptoms of Fifth Disease, sounds like Roseola. Just a rash following a high fever virus with no other symptoms.

So, all of this is fine and dandy if there's really nothing wrong....but this child had mystery fevers, regulary. High mystery fevers. Not so high they're dangerous but still between 103 and 104, and they usually only last around 24 hours, but I'm so curious as to why she's got such frequent mystery fevers. No other symptoms...just a fever.