She's Gonna Be The Death of Me: A Note About Fevers

Re-posted from my other blog, Boy Q and Girl Q.

I have never worried about someone as much as I have worried about Girl Q.

Let's take a refresher course. There was the time she:

• Almost died in utero,
• Was born with "super scary" (read, not scary at all) sacral dimples, 
• Fell down a flight of 15 stairs THREE times,
• Decided to be allergic to Amoxicillin,
• Had The Fever From Hell (FFH).

This past week Girl Q has had a fever that ranged from 99* (when on Tylenol or Ibuprofen) to 107* (when the drugs wore off). We alternated Ibuprofen and Tylenol about every four or five hours. Some peds recommend this and some don't--it worked for us.

Despite this high number, we were encouraged by the fact that she responded to medication, was eating and drinking normally, and was active when she felt well. She was sleeping quite a bit. When her fever spiked I stripped off her clothes and gave her cool baths.

The "I-Feel-Like-Crap" Face

In case you don't believe me about not freaking out about the 'number' of a fever and running to the ER, see here, here ("...How sick your child seems is more important than how high the fever is running."), and here. This last page from Washington Pediatric Associates in Missouri is my favorite because the side bar has a list of Myths and Facts about fevers:

• "MYTH: All fevers need to be treated with fever medicine.
• FACT: Fevers only need to be treated if they cause discomfort. Usually that’s fevers over 102 or 103 degrees F.

• MYTH: Without treatment, fevers will keep going higher.
• FACT: Wrong. Fevers from infection top out at 105 or 106 degrees F or lower, due to the brain’s thermostat.

• MYTH: With treatment, fevers should come down to normal.
• FACT: With treatment, fevers usually come down 2 or 3 degrees F.

• MYTH: Fevers cause brain damage or fevers over 104 degrees F are dangerous.
• FACT: Fevers with infections don’t cause brain damage. Only body temperatures over 108 degrees F can cause brain damage. Fevers only go this high with high environmental temperatures (e.g. confined to a closed car)."

And a new tidbit I learned--"Some parents may be aware of what are called febrile seizures...These result from an inherited genetic tendency present in about 5% of people. They are usually brief, almost never harmful, and contrary to what you would think, aggressive treatment of fever and infection has not been shown to prevent them."

On Day Three of The Fever From Hell, we took her to a pediatrician because the FFH was lasting longer than we were comfortable with. As we expected, the Kid Doc said that it was most likely a viral infection but that, since it's common in little girls, we should do a urine test for a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI).

Unfortunately, bacterial cultures take time to grow. The rest of the week she continued to have a high fever that spiked at certain times and responded well to medication. 

On Day Six of the FFH, the Kid Doc called to say that in the teeny tiny drop of urine we were able to extract from our toddler, they had indeed found bacteria. Hallelujah! Antibiotics were started immediately. She had no burning when she went pee, no irritation on her Queen Victoria, and yet a UTI! The National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse site says that: "Symptoms of a UTI range from slight burning with urination or unusual-smelling urine to severe pain and high fever. A child with a UTI may also have no symptoms." Good to know.

It is now Sunday, Day Eight, T-minus 36 hours after antibiotics and hefty helpings of cranberry juice chews were started. Girl Q's temperature is normal!

Parenting is hard and Praise. The. Lord. We're all celebrating:

A mid-morning Birthday/No Fever Cupcake.

They begged and begged. I finally gave in. Sometimes bad things are so good. :)

There were times in the past week when I wondered if we should be panicking and camping in the Emergency Room. There were times that I let other people's panic make me feel like a bad parent. In the end, I'm glad we kept it cool, stayed patient, and got things figured out.

Down the Rabbit Hole, Part II

In our last adventure, I wrote about how I a) had another miscarriage and b) was recommended to an Advanced Maternal-Fetal Medicine office.

After banishing my children from the waiting room, I took a seat in the completely rotund waiting room. I couldn't see anything from where I was sitting because of a huge pole going up to the ceiling. Nonetheless, I found great joy in passing the time by chatting with my fellow inmates and ridiculing the photos of Vogue. Facebookers have seen this one:

From Vogue. By Some Photographer, Not Me.

I was finally taken into the back by a lady Doc from Poland. She actually asked my opinion about a vaginal birth versus a Cesarean birth--she had a C-section because her baby was breech. We talked for a long time and then she excused herself to go talk to "the doctor." Gah! I feel like this Bait And Switch happens all the time in doctors offices.

When the real Doctor came, he turned out to be a pleasant Jewish dude.

http://www.jjudaica.com/dont-worry-be-jewish-smiley-face-kippa-yarmulke

The sum up: these doctors were kind of at a loss since I already have kids. It's almost like I don't really have a problem, excepting that apparently my body has newly declared a moratorium on carrying babies. They ruled out hormone imbalances as a cause because of, uh, regularity. Things worth checking included blood clotting disorders and the condition of my uterus (detected via ultrasound).

Jewish Doc was nice, if a little indirect. About everything. 

"Oh, well, I've had multiple ultrasounds recently." 

"This type of ultrasound is different than a normal ultrasound."

"So....how? Is it more invasive somehow?"

"Well, that's not for me to say. It's okay for you to say, but..."

"Okay, so what type of ultrasound is it?!"

"Well, we put a little bit of saline solution in to help us see if there is something preventing an embryo from implanting well, like a polyp or adhesion..."

"It doesn't sound too uncomfortable."

"I think they're all uncomfortable, so it's not for me to say..."

In the end, I was very nervous about the results of all these blood tests for no reason at all. They checked for anti-phospholipid antibodies, lupus anti-coagulant, beta-something, and apparently another test to check my fertility levels. All the clotting ones were NEGATIVO. Which is good...and also bad, because there's no answer to be found there. But mostly this is good news!

I had no knowledge they conducted any other tests, but when the nurse called me back she let me know that my eggs were plentiful and healthy:

"...so everything there was negative. We also drew an Anti-Mullerian test-"

"A what?! Malaria?"

"Oh, it doesn't have anything to do with Malaria. It's just a test to see the quality and quantity of your eggs. And yours is good!"

"Oh, great! What...I mean...what sort of units of measurements are we looking at here? What's bad and what's good?"

"Well, anything under a two is too low. We like to see it above that. You're at a 5.6, so that's just great."

"Oh! Fantastic!"

I still find this a weird factoid to know about myself. Do you know your egg health number?! Does the dude in your life know his sperm count?! In any case, now it is up to me to call these people back at my leisure and schedule an extra-uncomfortable, super-invasive ultrasound. I haven't done this yet because, if you couldn't tell, I'm not super excited about it.

Down the Rabbit Hole, Part I

It's drizzling at our new house while I write this post, which I suppose is fitting.

In toto, I have officially had three miscarriages in the past year. I only count one as being "real" because of how it impacted me emotionally. The first one was too early, the third didn't seem real (there wasn't a little baby developing), but the second one really felt like a Q Baby that didn't make it.

This last time around, we found out we were pregnant right as we were getting ready to sell our house, search for a new house, buy a new house, move into a new house, etc...needless to say, it was stressful. Even though it was joyous and exciting, it was also stressful. It's not surprising that I had another miscarriage.

After we got so darn excited last time around I was loathe to let myself get so happy this time. When I went in for the 8 week ultrasound, I wasn't surprised to hear that there basically wasn't a baby developing. Between the ultrasound and my miscarriage, about two weeks passed. I miscarried en force the very day we moved into our new house. Super bad timing!

If you're wondering how I'm doing, the answer is all right. I'm sad that we haven't been able to have more kids but I'm happy that we already have two kids. When I have to unpack a box that's filled with baby paraphernalia, I get overwhelmed by a sense of sadness. I indulge in it before just Moving On. It might seem trite, but I have a roof over my head, loving family, and food in my belly. "Quit yer bitchin'!" But I have relaxed some of my dietary constraints and started eating cheese again to console myself. Too much cheese is a definite no-no, but a little is just yummy. ;)

In any case, this is the point where doctors start to take you seriously. I visited with my Nurse Midwife Ann (who is a sweet, adorable woman who probably bakes cookies regularly).

http://woldfitness.com/2009/07/win-the-flat-stomach-battle/

It's very frustrating going to an OB office when you are in fact, miscarrying. There are pregnant women everywhere and everyone is sad for you. This was the basic gist of my convo with Ann: since it's happened three times, we can start looking at some possible issues that might be causing miscarriages: blood clotting disorders, chromosomal defects, hormones, etc. I feel compelled to add that, as we humans (*Shocker!*) don't know everything, it is a possibility that they won't find anything wrong and will officially be at a loss as to the cause of my miscarriages.

Even though the Maternal-Fetal Medicine folks usually see women after yet more sad stories, Ann was going to pull some strings and try to get me in to see them now. More on that appointment in my next blog post, though it is the office I wrote about here.