Reason #203 of why I'm getting gray hair

When you become a parent, you devote 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to worrying about your little one. You do everything in your power to protect her, keep her safe and healthy. And you feel so helpless when she isn't.

This last week has been rough. Everything was going perfectly fine and happy. Then Tuesday evening, after we'd brought Adeleigh home from daycare and had her playing on the ground with all her toys, she started sobbing. This is not like her. She's generally a very happy, easy-going baby. So, we chalked it up to teething. She'd been teething for the last 5 months without any chompers yet, so this unusal behavior we assumed was indication that the tooth would be surfacing any minute. We gave her some baby ibuprofen and a teething ring and hoped that would bring relief. It didn't. Poor baby, so uncomfortable. We checked her temp which read 99.1. Two minutes later, checked it again. 100.5. Again, 101.7. Then, 101.9. Something wasn't right. What could cause her temperature to spike so high, so quickly? I called the doctor. He said teething wouldn't cause her temp to go higher than 100 or so, so it must be an infection she's trying to fight. He said it's not uncommon for a baby's fever to elevate to 103 or 104 before any further action is necessary. So, we monitored her all night.

The following morning, I knew something was off. She usually wakes up on her own between 5:30 and 6:30 am (this is really lovely on the weekends, by the way) and come 7:15 she was still sound asleep. I woke her up and her temp was at 100.4, so we kept her home from daycare. I stayed home from work. I scheduled her a doctor's visit that morning. Her temp climbed to 103. I was getting nervous. The doc checked everything else out - ears, lungs, bladder, stomach, appendix. Everything else checked out fine, she was just lethargic from the fever. The doctor assumed it as a viral infection, nothing we can do but to monitor her and push fluids. He said meningitis usually causes a very high fever without any other symptoms, but she was more aware of her surroundings than a baby with meningitis would be. He'd seen a lot of roseola this past week, so assumed it would develop into a rash in a few days time.

The poor thing didn't want to play, smile, eat, drink. She just wanted to be held, and sleep. That night was another rough night. We had her in our bed, so we could monitor her closely. We turned the AC up and pointed a fan toward the bed. I woke up at 1am feeling really hot. The heat was radiating off Adeleigh's body, so much so, that the sheets where she was laying felt like we'd just taken them out of the dryer. This couldn't be okay. We checked her temp: 102.7. We immediately stripped her down to her diaper and prepared some fluids. She wouldn't take a bottle, so we did medicine-droppers full of pedialyte. We gave her as many as she would take and force-fed her a few more.

Thursday we decided to have her blood checked for inflammation and to check her blood count. That was traumatic for everyone. It required 2 phlebotomists and 2 parents to keep Adeleigh's arm still. Phlebotomist #1 got the needle in A's arm and fished around for a vein without any luck. No luck in the other arm either. Poor baby had been poked and prodded and no blood had even been drawn. They would have to take 2 vials of blood through her thumb...Oh great, this should be fun.
Adeleigh's crying turned to screaming. I started sobbing. Phaeton was trying to console both of us while holding Adeleigh still......
Done. Thank goodness. Let's go home. But first, Momma needs an ice-cream cone. Daddy needs a beer.

At 9pm, the doctor called us with the results - white blood cell count is very high and the numbers indicate bacterial inflammation, not sure what kind, but we'll treat it with a general anti-biotic and hopefully see results in 24 hours. So, no roseola. This was unsettling, as we were hoping for a diagnosis, any diagnosis with a fix. He expressed concern and stated that we needed to drive to the only remaining 24 hour pharmacy in Fort Collins and get her started on antibiotics immediately.
When Phaeton came home with the amoxicillin, I became nervous. I have an allergy to amoxicillin and didn't feel comfortable giving my baby a medicine so late at night, with an increased risk that she too could have a reaction. I called the pharmacist and expressed my concern. He said, "So, wait til the morning."
Me - "But, her doctor said to start her on it immediately."
Him - "Well then, have benadryl handy in case she has a reaction. And if that doesn't help, call for an ambulance."
Oh yeah, that's reassuring. Thanks, doc.
Me - "Is it okay for a 10 month old to have benadryl?"
Him - "Well, you're not supposed to give it to children under 6 years of age, but it'd be better to give than let her have a reaction."
Still not helping, doc.
Per Adeleigh's doctor, we gave her 1/2 the indicated amount for the 1st dose and started the normal dosage for the next morning. After I told him the list of possible reactions that could occur, including seizure, he reassured me that with 1/2 the dose, the most reaction she'd get would be a rash.
Thankfully, she's had no reaction thus far to the anti-biotic. Phew. Oh, how I love the stresses of Western medicine.

Friday morning she was doing much better. I stayed home from work again. Phaeton was off. She was playing and watching Yo Gabba Gabba! like any other kid. That is one trippy show! But she loves it, and it lightened the mood, so that's all that matters. Her fever was down between 99 and 100 and she was eating and taking fluids again. We decided to take her to the doc just to have her checked before the weekend. He started talking to us about white blood cell counts being too high and how the inability to ward off infection can be leukemia or a slew of other things, "But, don't worry. I'm not saying she has leukemia." Here's what I took from that conversation, "She has leukemia."
We went home and I started Googling bacterial inflammations and white blood cell counts. Now I was getting worried. I was reading all about bacterial meningitis and how horrific it is for babies. Wait a second, the doctor mentioned something about meningitis on our 1st day there. Here's what I took from that thought, "She has meningitis."
Adeleigh started sobbing again and we checked her temp, 102.8. We were panicking, wondering if we needed to rush to the ER. And we remembered what the doc said about waiting 24 hours for the anti-biotic to kick in. We're about 2 hours short. And as long as she's not getting worse, we don't need to take her yet. We gave her another dose of baby ibuprofen, of anti-biotic, of pedialyte and waited. Her fever gradually dropped, and she fell asleep on my chest.
We got ready for bed, gently handing Baby off while the other got ready. It was 10pm Friday. We laid down, placed Adeleigh in between us and she woke up, rolling over onto her belly. She popped her cute little pacifier-face up, squeezed toward us and buried her face in my chest, then Phaeton's - as if to say, Thanks Mom & Dad for the love and concern. But really, I'm fine. See? And then - she took off. First, to the headboard to play with Mom's glasses. Then, to pull Nubi's ears, who's peacefully sleeping at the foot of the bed, and didn't know what was coming. Next on Adeleigh's agenda of I'm feeling much better - to try and roll over Mommy's hips into her crib (we currently use a bedside sleeper due to a lack of space in our 1-bedroom condo). We didn't let that last one happen, but we let her bounce and giggle and yank for a little while until she finally crashed on her tummy in between us, bum high in the air. It was a beautiful sight, to have our sweet angel back, feeling playful and well. Then we all peacefully slept, for the first time in days.

It's Saturday now and she's much better. She still has a low-grade fever, but she's pretty well back to herself. At this point, I'm sure she doesn't have meningitis, or leukemia. Note to self: don't try and diagnose anything using the internet. We'll be headed to get more bloodwork today to ensure the bacteria levels are falling. We may not ever know what took her to the extreme the last few days, but at this point, we're just grateful she's improving. I'm amazed that this 19-pound body could withstand such high temps for 3 days and bounce back so easily. She's a trooper. And to top it all off, this morning, while giggling with a mouthful of bananas, I got a little peek at her first toothbud, poking down from the top.