This is the song that never ends...

I don't normally write about every time Penny or either of us gets sick, but this recent round of illness is just ridiculous. The week before last Penny started running a low temperature. On Wednesday and Thursday of that week I'd think she felt hot, take her temp and it would be 100 or so, but then I'd go to check it a little while later and it'd be normal again. Friday morning of Tray's birthday (the 12th) we were supposed to go to his family's to celebrate and Penny had a 101 temp. Gave her some tylenol and hung out until after lunch. She seemed fine, so we went on. That night it went above 103. I had trouble keeping it under control throughout the day on Saturday and that night it even spiked to 105.1. The thing is, she had no other symptoms. Nothing. Which had us freaked that she was having a relapse of KD, although I knew we'd need to wait another day or so to reach the 5 days or more of fever criteria -- and watching her mouth like a hawk to see if it started turning red.

We called the doctor on-call at her pediatrician's here in town, and also spoke to a nurse practitioner who is a good friend of my sister-in-law and both said it was probably just a virus and that she'd probably be okay until Monday. By Monday her temp had come down to 101 or so on average and I took her in to see her regular pediatrician. She checked her out and couldn't find anything amiss. Her ears looked fine, her throat did not look red, her lungs were clear, she seemed happy as a lark. I was told it was just a virus and especially since the fever was coming on down from what it had been that it was probably on it's way out.

Tuesday morning she woke up with a fever, the sniffles (Tray's dad had a cold while we were there), and an enlarged lymph node on one side of her neck. The lymph node on one side is another characteristic of KD, but seeing as I'd just taken her in the day before (and also that I work all day on Tuesday) I called the nurse to ask if we should be concerned. They set us up an appointment within 30 minutes of my call. Tray had to take her since I was at work. Tray said her doctor seemed not that concerned by the lymph node. She said it was likely caused by a "viral sore throat" and took a swab for strep and another to culture for bacteria or whatever else showed up. The strep was negative. Penny continued to run a low temperature through Thursday, but it was pretty much almost gone. Meanwhile her cold got worse and we were up both Tuesday and Wednesday nights with a very congested and restless child.

I figured we were in the clear with the virus though, until the phone rang on Thursday. The throat culture had shown bacteria, but they wouldn't know what bacteria until the culture had time to grow out some more. In the meantime they were going to start Penny on Keflex and if they needed to change the medicine once the full results were in, they would. However, when I went by the pharmacy that evening the prescription had not been called in, and it was after 5 so the doctor's office was closed. The next morning, I called and was informed that there had been a computer error and the nurse would call it in right away. So, I picked up Penny's Keflex Friday morning and gave her a dose. Mid-day Friday the phone rang and the nurse said that the throat culture showed staph and that Keflex would not work on that so we'd need to switch to Clyndamiacin. I went back to the pharmacy and got that and gave it to her before her bath that evening. After her bath, I was getting her into her pj's when I noticed she was getting hives on her legs.

I called the on-call pediatrician who said (of course) not to give her any more Clyndamiacin and to give her Benadryl. She also then told me that she and Penny's regular doctor thought the lab results probably just indicated that Penny is "colonized" by staph and that it wasn't the cause of the fever. In fact, Penny was not having a fever any more at that point and was doing fine except for the fact that she'd had a raging head cold since Tuesday and now had a junky cough. That doctor said there probably wasn't any need for antibiotics after all. I could see her point, but I was also upset because we'd canceled plans to go to the fair with friends b/c she needed to be on the antibiotics for 24 hours, she'd had an adverse reaction to one of them, I was out $25 or more on the two wasted bottles of medicine, and she didn't even need antibiotics.

Saturday was my family reunion and Penny was feeling much better and really wanted to go. On the way, the doctor running the Saturday clinic at their office called to check on her and he reiterated what the other doctor had told me. He didn't think she needed antibiotics, but to keep an eye on her cough and if she didn't get better to come in on Monday. We had a good time at the reunion and headed home after lunch. That afternoon we took her to the fair (whereupon my own cold hit me like a ton of bricks). I came home and went to bed. Tray stayed up with Penny for a bit, and unbeknownst to me got up with her several times during the night as she had an "upset stomach" (and yes that is a euphemism). We didn't know if she'd eaten something bad at the reunion or if it was from the cold or the antibiotics or what (she didn't eat anything at the fair). Sunday rolls around, she has no fever, the lymph node is still there and maybe even larger, she has one more episode of upset stomach and then has symptoms of what I was pretty sure was a UTI.

Cut to today (Monday again). I called and got her an appointment for this afternoon. In the meantime she had another episode of upset stomach and her fever went back up to 101. I thought for sure a UTI. Nope. Urine was clean. She's just irritated (no pun intended). So what's causing the fever!!?! No idea. Ears fine, throat fine, lungs clear (despite the cough). Best guess is the lymph node is itself infected with the staph. So she is on a third (!) antibiotic, but one that is some heavy duty stuff to knock out staph. Here's hoping it will do what it is supposed to do and that her little tummy can settle down (which is not likely given that that is the main side effect of this drug). Little-bit's already lost almost a pound and a half since last Monday, which is not the normal state of affairs for a week featuring one of my family's reunions I tell you.

In other news, I have coughed so hard in the last few days that I have given myself six-pack abs from the workout. Tray has been passed out in his recliner since early this evening in cold related misery. The Earnest household looks, sounds, and feels like an infirmary.  So that's what has been going on. I really, really hope to update this blog tomorrow with better health-related news. Much love to you all.