She's Hangin in There!

I was so gleeful this morning when I realized her fever was gone. Clear up until 11am, there was NO fever. Even without the fever though, Moo just wasn't herself. Wouldn't crawl off to play, wouldn't even sit up really. She just wanted to be held. She continued to drink a lot of fluids, but didn't seem to have much of an appetite at all. After Zac got home we checked her temperature---back up to 102.5! I left for work completely drained, depressed and worried.

Zac spoke with the nurse, who said Dr. Ally wanted to see her Friday morning. He called me to schedule an appointment, and when I called they said she was booked until Friday afternoon, but I could see Dr. Kissam instead. I mentioned to the receptionist that we really want to know what's going on, if it's something more than a virus, and that we have plans to head out of town on Saturday. She said "Dr. Kissam has some afternoon openings, just come in today." So we did.

Dr. Kissam said with as high as her fever keeps getting daily, and with as long as it's lasted--going on FOUR DAYS NOW, it was time to run some tests. I reiterated to her that Maggie does have some happy, playful moments still. The feverish, horrible moments are far outweighing those happy moments though, and she said we need to rule out infection, flu and strep.

First it was the strep and flu cultures. Not fun for Maggie, but tolerable. Both were negative. Then came in the nurses with a catheter. I never thought I would be "that mom." I was completely "that mom." For lack of a better way to describe it---a complete b-i-t-c-h! In summary I told them that they better be quick, efficient, and patient. Afterwards I realized my reaction was probably not the best approach, just one of my lessons I'll be learning as a mother. I scared the poor girl and it took her five times to get some urine. Maggie was very brave, and did great. Meanwhile, Mommy is about to enter full breakdown mode.

Enters Dr. Kissam---urine test comes back fine. Next step blood work. This is when I ask point blank, "is this a severe reaction to the MMR vaccine?" I mean seriously people...four days of fever, fever over 103, and at times Moo acts like she can't even get herself up. Dr. Kissam replied that she's not going to deny that it is possible, but she doesn't feel it's probable. She said in her 15 years of practice she hasn't seen a severe case like this, if this is a severe reaction to the vaccine. She says if the blood work (which will be testing white blood cells and doing a blood culture) comes back fine we know it's either a virus or a reaction to the vaccinations--then we continue to wait it out.

We figure we've gone this far, if Maggie does have an infection somewhere in her little body we better find out. I guess it's better to be safe then sorry. We head over to St. Luke's Meridian to do the blood work. I'm trying to stay calm for Moo, but I can feel the tears coming. Zac keeps reminding me to stay calm. Maggie's fever has spiked again and she keeps falling asleep in my arms.

The first blood draw went slow. The lab tech looked at us, and said those dreaded words, "I'm not sure if we got enough, and we may have to do it again." I looked at Zac and said, "I can't do it again!" He said, "We have to!" Sure enough, not enough blood, because it clotted in the tube before it could get to the lab. Luckily, second time was a charm. They quickly ushered us out--mommy bawling, baby curled up, angry and very feverish again, and daddy trying to console us both.

After we got home, Maggie and I took a bath together, she got more Motrin (which she is now refusing to take easily), and she got that "I'm okay wind" again. She decided to eat, and even got down to play before bed. She's now fast asleep.

We should get a call tomorrow morning about the results of the blood test. We'll keep everyone posted.