I'm saying UNCLE!!! (from the Unsinkable Molly Brown)

Where to begin...

Last Thursday I took our youngest daughter in to the doctors. She had a fever and some odd aches and pains she was complaining about. When they tested her for strep it came out positive, so they put her on some antibiotics. The next morning she still had a slight fever and a few more aches and pains, especially in her knees and ankles, so I kept her home again. I checked her temperature on Saturday morning and she was normal, so I let her go to a family gathering that afternoon. Later, that same evening her fever returned and was 103 degrees. I gave her some acetaminophen and was able to get the fever down to around 100 degrees, but was puzzled about her continuing fevers since she had been on amoxicillan for three days. Saturday night ended up being a rough night. Abby woke me up 6 times during the night saying her legs hurt and she couldn't sleep. I ended up staying home from church to stay with her and try and get a nap. She seemed to be doing ok, so I went to my sons scouting Court of Honor. I was only gone about an hour, but when I got home Abigail's temperature was 104.4. I gave her another dose of acetaminophen, put some cool cloths on her forehead, gave her some frozen yogurt and monitored her for the next couple of hours. I was able to reduce her temperature to 101.2.

At 7 am the next morning, I called into work letting them know I wouldn't be in and made another appointment with the doctor. When I got in, they ended up handing us off to their pediatric specialist. By the time we left, an hour and a half later, they had filled 5 vials with Abby's blood, taken a urine sample, been in touch with some doctors at the Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, and set us up with an adult sized dose of naproxen. (Abby is only 10 years old.) Abby's knees and ankles were both swollen at this point, although her right was worse than her left. The hardest part of it all was no one was sure what was going on.

There is nothing that makes you feel more helpless than having your child be in pain and having no idea why. It is even scarier when you go to a doctor and they can't tell you what is wrong either. Tuesday started off a lot better, but her fever returned around 5 pm and I couldn't give her any more medication until 7 pm. I called her doctor and was told to monitor her and take her into the emergency room of the hospital if her temperature went over 103 degrees. Fortunately, it stayed at 102 or less. The doctors told us to keep giving her the medications they had prescribed and to bring her in again on Thursday unless things got worse, in which case we should come in sooner. Wednesday, went well and the pain and swelling in Abby's legs and feet went down.

Today, Thursday, we went back into the doctors and finally got some news back on all the different tests they had run. The good news is that she doesn't have rheumatic fever. The bad news is it looks like she has some kind of arthritis. The doctors aren't sure what kind of arthritis it is yet. I'm supposed to keep a log over the next three weeks of her daily temperature, pain levels, locations of pain, etc. We are also supposed to schedule an appointment with a rheumatologist up at the Primary Children's Hospital.

At the moment, Abby is feeling better than she has for the past week. The swelling in her legs has gone down a lot, she is walking with only a slight limp, her appetite is returning, her temperature is normal, and it looks like she is getting better. As for me and Steve, we are both pretty shot. This was an emotionally and physically exhausting week for the two of us. If we thought we were tired and worn out before from Steve's cancer, that was nothing compared to where we are now. We keep hanging in there and are just taking one day at a time. And please... no more surprises! I need to rest and recover from this last round.