What the...?!?

I know it's been long-time-no-post, but with good reason. For one, we were in Michigan for a while, and two, I have been dealing with the medical melodramas of Cole.

It all started July 1st, when Cole began running a 102.9 fever. This was startling, because this kid has never been sick, never run a fever, nothing (with the exception of a small cold he had in February, but he didn't even have a fever then!) This continued well into the night, only being helped by Tylenol briefly, and eventually peaked at 105!!! I took him into a pediatrician here in Prescott the next day, and they couldn't find a single thing wrong with the kid and his fever had come way down. We figured it was just a freak viral thing (it had been going around)

The following week, on the 8th, he started running a fever again. Rather than wait it out (and have it get super high again), I took him back to the doctor. This time they noticed some swelling and pus on his tonsils. They took a strep culture and put him on Amoxicillin, just to be safe.

Friday, the 10th (and day before our trip), the doctor called and said the culture came back negative, but they had me take him back in since he was still running a fever. At this point they decided to do a blood culture, and some other blood work (which Cole just loved and made me a wreck), and told me to go ahead and keep him on the antibiotic, because it wasn't going to hurt. So while frantically trying to get ready for our vacation, I was running all over Prescott to the doctor and then the lab!

Saturday, the 11th, upon arriving in Michigan, I received a phone call from one of the doctors he had seen asking me to call immediately on her cell! Now, I don't know about you, but I have never been given a doctor's cell number! I called back and she said the lab had called and bacteria was growing in Cole's culture. At this point they were still unsure what kind, but I should be ready to take him to the hospital. I explained we were in Michigan (although I thought they understood that, and that that was the reason why I had already brought him in 3 times that week!) She was shocked that I had left Prescott, and wanted to know where exactly we were so she could determine if we would be close enough to quality pediatric care (she was thinking Chicago). Of course, at this point, I was mildly panicked.

Monday, the 13th, I received another message to call the doctor's office immediately. This time they informed me that Cole's culture came back positive for staph bacteria and I needed to get him back to the lab ASAP to do a follow up culture. Again, I explained I was in Michigan. Again, shock on the other end. However, they said tests showed it was amoxicillin sensitive, and to go ahead and just keep giving him that, however, if he started to run any sort of fever (99 or higher) to take him to the ER immediately, and as soon as I got home, to take him in for another culture.

Saturday, the 18th (the day we came home) I noticed Cole was a little pink in the cheeks, but still no fever (it had pretty much been nonexistent since the previous Saturday). I chalked it up to the fact that we left the cottage in Michigan around 7:30 am AZ time, and didn't arrive home until 11:00pm!

Sunday morning, the 19th, we woke up to find Cole very red in the cheeks, and very spotty/splotchy allover. I gave him a bath (we had skipped this the previous night due to the time) and noticed his "spots" were a whole lot worse than I initially thought. He also had two very swollen scrapes on his knee (which he got while in Michigan). After much debate, I decided to call the on-call nurse at the pediatrician's office. At first, she told me to just wait till Monday to take Cole in, but then when I started relaying Cole's recent history, she told me to go ahead and take him to the ER. I mentioned that he had just gone down for a nap, so I would take him after a while. The nurse called back about 10 minutes later, and said, on second thought, she didn't want me to wait, and go ahead and wake Cole up, and take him in now.

At the ER, the doctor walked in, said oh, looks like an amoxicillin reaction, but his knee doesn't look right, wrote him two prescriptions, and left. (that was so worth the $500+ that that info's going to cost!) On the one hand, I'm grateful it wasn't anything worse (because it could have been a WHOLE LOT worse), on the other hand, it would have been nice if the doctor had looked at Cole up close versus the 10 feet he stood from the poor kid! (I should mention though, as soon as Cole saw anyone wearing scrubs, let alone a white coat, he was HYSTERICAL!!! I told you his blood work had been fun- and I guess traumatizing!)

So yesterday, I took him in for the follow up blood culture (again, so fun, but I swear, for a kid who's not talking, at the end of the draw he was yelling "I done, I done, I done!" So sad!) and this morning I took hm back to the pediatrician for his ER follow up. Today, however, the doctor said, its really more like hives that he's got, in addition to the measles-like rash from the amoxicillin. He also thinks his knee sores are nothing more than giant hives, and to stop the ER doctor's medicines, because they may actually be doing more harm (and cause more rash) than good.

So, now at this point, I have a major headache, and still, no one can tell me what the heck is going on!!! We are still waiting to hear back on the culture, and the doctor wants me to hold off on any meds, with the exception of Benadryl, if I so choose, just to help Cole be a little more comfortable, because we can't imagine he is just not itching to death. He wants to see if he gets any sort of fever again, so that way, we may be able to locate its origin a little easier. But in the meantime, I'm just thinking - what the...?!?




I will post about our trip later.