Fever 4

Nevaeh went in on Thursday afternoon for some more blood work. Her doctor is working hard on trying to figure it out. To save us more wait time, she got the results back to us that night, well the ones tests that were done anyway. The tests that were done showed a whole lot of nothin'. Well, nothing that we didn't already know. Her iron is a little low but Dr. Kennedy said it is probably just because she has been sick.


On Friday evening, she called again to tell me the results of the other blood tests that weren't done the night before. So here are the mechanics of it...


Her ESR or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (It is a nonspecific screening test that indirectly measures how much inflammation is in the body) has gone up from the last time her blood was taken. A normal level for someone Nevaeh's age is between 1 and 10. Her level last week was 36 and this test shows that it is now at 81. So, what does that tell us you might ask? Not a whole lot.


Her CRP or C-reactive protein (a test that measures the amount of a protein in the blood that signals acute inflammation. It can reveal that there is inflammation present in the body, but it cannot tell you where it is) level is also elevated. In a healthy person the level of this protein is usually below 8 and can even not be present in the blood. Her level is 124. So, what does this tell us you might also ask? Still not a whole lot. It shows that there is inflammation in the tissue but doesn't give us an indication of where.


Dr. Kennedy was concerned about the levels both the ESR and CRP were at so consulted with someone in Infectious Diseases. They said that even though the numbers were elevated, it wasn't hugely alarming. Here are the things that it COULD be... Valley Fever, CMV, or mono.


Valley fever is caused by fungi in the soil. The fungi that cause valley fever can be stirred into the air by anything that disrupts the soil, such as farming, construction and wind. The fungi can then be breathed into the lungs. Valley fever is a form of coccidioidomycosis (kok-sid-e-oi-doh-mi-KOH-sis), or cocci (KOK-si) infection. It can cause fever, chest pain and coughing, among other signs and symptoms.


Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a virus found around the world. It is related to the viruses that cause chickenpox and infectious mononucleosis (mono). Between 50 percent and 80 percent of adults in the United States have had a CMV infection by age 40. Once CMV is in a person's body, it stays there for life.


Infectious mononucleosis, or "mono", is an infection caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. The virus spreads through saliva, which is why it's sometimes called "kissing disease." Mono occurs most often in 15 to 17-year-olds. However, you can get it at any age. Symptoms of mono include
Fever
Sore throat
Swollen lymph glands
Sometimes you may also have a swollen spleen. Serious problems are rare.


Nevaeh did have a mono test that came back negative but Dr. Kennedy said that the blood test is not always accurate.


However, Nevaeh has not had a fever since Friday morning. So it has almost been 48 hours since she has had a fever. We are hoping it stays away, but last weekend, the same thing happened and she went almost 72 hours without a fever and then it came back worse. So, I am keeping my fingers crossed but don't feel like we are out of the woods yet. I will be talking to Dr. Kennedy this week and still have some questions for her. I will keep all updated on what is going on and hopefully we will find out what it was/is. But I am beginning to think that I may never know.


Thank you for your prayers and concern!

Fever 3

Ok, so after a 2 day absence of the fever, we thought we were back to normal. Then it came back Monday afternoon. It didn't just come back either, it came back with a vengeance! Monday night it was about 102. We gave her Motrin and put her to bed. About 4:00 am, Nevaeh woke up and crawled into bed with us BURNING UP. I took her temperature and it was up to 103.8. She wouldn't take any medicine so I tried cooling her off with making her drink cold water and taking her shirt off. It worked, it slowly came down.... I couldn't sleep so I kept checking her temp every 5 minutes or so to make sure she was ok. By the time Kohlton woke up it was back down to 101. I called and made another doctor appointment for her. By the time we got there, her temp was at 100.4 and she was acting fine. They had her pee in a cup again to see about some sort of bacteria that could be in her kidneys but we won't get the results back til Thursday because it has to culture. Not quite sure why it takes that long but that is what the doctor told me. We were in there FOREVER! My appointment was at 11:15 and we didn't walk out of there until 12:30. When we were finishing up I could tell she was starting to not feel well again because she was getting clingy. We came home and she wanted to take a nap on the couch. She didn't really fall asleep but just kind of laid there. A little while later she said she didn't feel good and was hot. I came over to take off the long sleeved shirt she was wearing and she started to throw up. After that was done and over with, I got the thermometer and checked her temp. It was at 105.2!!! I stripped her clothes off and made her take some Motrin... Well, threatened her really. I told her that if she didn't take the Motrin, I would have to take her to the doctor and they would poke her with a needle. I'm pretty sure this may have been the outcome, but pretty much lied so she would take the stinkin' Motrin. Within 30 minutes or so it had gone down to 104.8 and then it came down more from there. In about 2 hours it was at 100-101 and she was acting like herself again. I did call the Pediatrician and now we are on fever control so it won't get that high again. They told me only to worry if it got that high again, I gave her Motrin, and it didn't come down a degree in one hour. So, even though 105.2 seems like a REALLY high number I guess it's ok as long as it comes down. So, we are at home yet again today because she can't go to school until she has gone 24 hours without a fever and it was up to 103.7 around midnight last night. (Again, had to threaten her to get her to take the Motrin) She is getting antsy and wants to go back to school and I want to go back to school as well... I am just ready for our normal schedule back I guess.

Thank you for your prayers thus far and for everyone's concern and help. We appreciate it.

Continue to keep her in your prayers!!!

Fever 2

So we had some doctor appointments today but we didn't learn a whole lot more...

We know that she doesn't have leukemia, which evidently was on the table but Dr. Kennedy didn't tell Jason about it on Monday when he took her in because he didn't want to scare him unnecessarily. Her blood results didn't really tell us a whole lot. She is a bit anemic but that could just be a result of being sick in general. The only other indicator that was not normal was one that showed if there was inflammation in the body ( I can't remember what it was called). Normal range is from 1-10 and hers is up to 36. While that seems REALLY high compared to the norm, Dr. Kennedy said that it isn't scary until it is in the 90's. But what it does show us is that there is inflammation SOMEWHERE in her body.

So, what did we do with this knowledge? We went to the radiologist to get a chest x-ray to see if there was inflammation in her chest (pneumonia) that couldn't be heard with a stethoscope. She got some "pictures of her tickle spots" and we were sent back home to wait for results. After an hour or so (thankfully they were very fast getting the results back) we got a call about her x-rays... normal. Which is great and wonderful because now we know that she doesn't have pneumonia.

Also while we were at the doctor's office, she had to pee in a cup which she thought was the silliest thing. She asked me why and I told her that Dr. Kennedy wanted to look at her pee to see if it was healthy. She still can't figure out why anyone would want to look at her pee. So with the results of peeing in a cup, we also know that it isn't a kidney infection.

So, we are finding out what it is NOT, but not a lot of knowledge about what it IS. So last recommendation from the doctor while we wait on some more blood results that weren't ready today is.... lots of REST, drink FLUIDS, and take MOTRIN as needed for the fever.

That's all I know as of now. But Nevaeh's fever was up to 103.3 about an hour ago. I'm starting to begin to think it is NEVER going to go away...

Keep her in your prayers!!!

Fever

So, Nevaeh has had a fever on and off for about 3 weeks now. She has been sent home from school 4 times in the last 3 weeks with a fever and has had it at home too. I didn't pay much attention it at first but as time went on I have been keeping track, more so this last week. I take her temperature about every hour. It is always at 100.1-100.6 degrees and sometimes it will spike to 101.5-101.9. When it does spike, she complains about her back and hips bothering her. I know that I didn't keep track of it at the beginning, but I am beginning to think that she has had a constant fever for 3 weeks, which I know can't be good.

She has seen the doctor and had blood work done yesterday (that was a fun experience by the way... 3 adults holding down 1 five-year-old!). She has another appointment again today to talk about the results. I am just worried.

I only give her Motrin when it spikes because I hate giving medicine and especially so much so often. Besides, she only acts sick when it spikes, when it is at 100 degrees she acts fine, which is why I think that I didn't really notice that she was constantly running a fever. Or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better for not paying as good of attention as I should have.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this with their own kids? Any suggestions of what I should do? I will know more this afternoon and will let everyone know what I find out.

Please keep Nevaeh in your prayers and wish us luck!

ROTH: Est. 2002

For Christmas Jason's sister Alicia made us something for our wall... We finally got around to putting it up!

Here are the kids "helping" Jason getting it ready to put on the wall.

Jason was a bit nervous putting it up on the wall above his TV but it all went up without any catastophes.

We love it and it has really added to the decore of our TV room... Matches the funiture perfectly.

THANK YOU ALICIA!!!