A prayer request.

(Lost most of my pictures when I switched from WP to blogger. Slowly working on putting them back, but it's a massive undertaking so please forgive the broken image links!)

UPDATE:  Baby girl is MUCH better now, thanks for the prayers!  We so value them!  In the end, they think she had strep, scarlet fever and a virus on top of it that kept her fever so high and her mood so low.  Poor bebe is on the mend and has been fever-free since Tuesday!  :)

My last blog post was ironically all about rashes.  Little did I know that the rash Adalyn had that we thought was a totally benign flare-up (this is pretty typical for her; she's got such sensitive skin) was actually foretelling.

I wrote that post on Wednesday and woke up Thursday to a blazing hot daughter.  As the day went on, the rash got worse and the fever climbed.  We got her in to see the doctor that afternoon who confirmed my suspicion that she had strep throat and scarlet fever.  The rash is the classic scarlet fever "sandpaper" rash and the doctor saw pus on her tonsils (sorry).  Seemed easy enough to diagnose, so off we went to the pharmacy with our first-ever prescription for antibiotics for one of our children.  That in and of itself was a little difficult because antibiotics are tough on little systems and I always fear that I'll prevent our children's bodies from being able to fight off bugs when they really need it.  Strep is one of those illnesses that can get serious, though, so we opted for the antibiotic course.



Our doctor's parting words were, "She will be acting much better rapidly, but remember to finish that bottle off."

The next day I was expecting improvement, but there was none.

The following day I was sure she'd be better.  She wasn't.



So when I awoke this morning to a little gal who was still running a sky-high fever, 3 days into her antibiotics, my gut said to do something.  She hadn't even walked on her own two feet by the afternoon, her fever was still super high, she wasn't eating or drinking much and was not at all herself.



I called our doctor who encouraged us to go the the children's hospital, so off we went.  That was, hands-down, the worst thing I've experienced.  I feel so fortunate that we have never experienced more invasive tests and my heart goes out to parents who have had to watch so much worse in terms of medical intervention.  After today, I just can't imagine.  They had to catheterize her to get a urine sample and draw quite a bit of blood to run tests, as well as an IV for fluids and a nasal swab to check for the flu.  I watched the room spin and felt certain I would pass out as my husband and I held down our screaming daughter who begged us to "stop" and "I don't want to!"  Oh. My. God.  She kept looking up into our eyes, totally non-verbally pleading with us to make it stop.  It went on for way too long, and I honestly contemplated scooping her up and running out of that room.

Unfortunately, we didn't walk out with many answers.  There were a lot of, "Could be X," "Could be Y," "We aren't sure," "Continue antibiotics just in case, but it's probably not bacterial," "Bring her back in if X, Y, Z happens," etc.  Apparently tomorrow will be most telling, as today was day four with a high fever (five days of high fever in a child can indicate something called Kawasaki Disease) so we are supposed to go back to see our doctor tomorrow so that we can assess her condition then and discuss the next options.  Our doctor called to check on her tonight and agreed that she needs to come back in in the morning.

Just wanted to put out a prayer request on behalf of my sweet girl.  Praying that miraculously, she will wake up with no fever in the morning and the rash will be mostly (all?) gone.  There is just nothing quite like watching your child in misery without the ability to help him or her.  It feels sort of like someone has ripped your heart out, smashed it to pieces and stuffed it back inside, a mangled mess.