Manic: The week before Christmas all by itself is manic enough…and then your kid gets sick and it is manic with a capital M!
Managed: Literally had to come to a screeching halt and prioritize, which meant everything got canceled (even any blog posts that I would have usually done this week) until we could figure out her illness and get her on the road to recovery.
Our sweet Tucker cat always stays with the ill family member.
Be sure to read on because there is a somewhat unsettling health tip in here you need to know about…
A week ago yesterday, my girl tried to fake that all was well as we got ready for school, but I knew better by her pale face and low energy. I finally got her to admit to me that she wasn’t feeling so well. With that I discovered that she had a low grade fever, so I made her stay home from school and she wasn’t thrilled about that at all. By the next day, her fever was gone, but she still wasn’t right to me, so I ran her up to Urgent Care. We were told that she has the common cold, so we resumed some of our normal activities on Sunday. That included cashing in on my Christmas gift…I asked for family portraits for my present this year.
It is crazy because you can see in the photo that she looks pretty good, but by Sunday night, she had 101 fever again.
Ugh.
So on Monday I took her to her doctor who told me that it was either Strep Throat or Hand, Foot and Mouth virus, as those two illnesses had been pretty popular (or should I say unpopular) in her office that last week. She tested her for Strep twice and sent it off to the lab and it all came back negative. We left all thinking that she had Hand, Foot and Mouth virus and resigned ourselves to the fact that only rest and more missed school days would cure that.
Two days later after battling 103 fever, her doctor wanted her back in the office as now she was worried that Lexi may be fighting another type of virus like Mono. Thank goodness she decided to run yet another Strep test because this time it came back positive and the Mono test was negative. I never imagined that I would cheer for a Strep diagnosis, but I sure did.
After only a day and a half on the antibiotic, she is herself again and is able to return to school for one last school day before the holiday break!
Holding up gifts dropped off from a sweet friend. What a difference three doses of antibiotics makes!
So my advice to all of you, if a Strep test comes back negative, but you or your child is getting sicker and sicker, demand another Strep test, especially if your throat is painful. Urgent Care told us a cold, but she never sneezed or coughed once. Her doctor thought Hand, Foot and Mouth virus since the Strep was negative at first, but she never developed the full on mouth sores or the body rash (thank goodness). I was so glad that her doctor decided to test for Strep again.
With cold and flu season, you just never know. So be well, eat well, get your sleep, wash hands and if you aren’t getting better, go back to the doctor and do repeat tests. Never feel silly asking for that!
And now I’m saying a little prayer that I don’t get it since I have been caring for her all week. I have taken my probiotics, extra Vitamin C and my Boiron Oscillo. So I choose to think positive, but if I do end up feeling bad, I will demand several Strep tests if one comes up negative. My poor girl! Crazy how we either got false negatives or the bacteria took a few days to show up, especially with the amount o of pain she was in and the high fever she was sporting. Bless her heart!
