Sick AGAIN

It all started on Monday morning with Sarah having a high temp of 102.9, but no other symptoms. We took her to the pediatrician, but didn't see our regular doctor since she doesn't come in on Mondays. She was tested for flu and strep which both came back negative. She was given a blood count test which came back viral. They had to insert a catheter because after 2 hours, she hadn't peed in the bag even though I was giving her water from her cup every few minutes. The urinalysis came back normal. Her ears looked fine.

The CDC recommends that any child that has a high fever, runny nose, and cough should be given the flu medication, Tamiflu, just to be on the safe side. Sarah didn't have a runny nose or a cough, but the pediatrician wanted her to be on the medication just in case. So Sarah was put on that for five days. If she never got any other symptoms, then she wouldn't be contagious after 24 hours of being fever free. Her fever broke on Tuesday morning. She never got any other symptoms, but I continued to give her the Tamiflu just in case. I thought that it would all be over on Saturday morning when she finished her last dose.

Yesterday, Emily said she had a stomachache when she woke up. I figured it was because she had gone to bed late the night before and told me she had woken up at 5:00 a.m. that morning. The stomachache came and went with no fever so I told her to go ahead and go to school. Eliana was complaining about going to the gym. I didn't think anything of it because she always complains about going to the gym unless it's a Wednesday for painting day or a Friday for treat day. Once she has been, she tells me how much fun she had and how she wants to go back, but then we just repeat the whole not wanting to go next time. I just told her that she had to go as I do every morning and went to class. About 15 minutes into my class, the nursery worker came and said Eliana had a fever of over 102.

After I got out to my car, I saw that Emily's school had called. She had a "fever" of 99.1. I say "fever" because I don't really consider anything to be a fever unless it is at least 100.0 and our pediatrician doesn't even consider it a fever unless it is 102.0. But I figured that since I was taking Eliana to the pediatrician, I might as well take Emily to get it over with.

Both of the their flu and strep tests came back negative. Emily had a high viral count in her blood, but Eliana was almost normal. Since they didn't have a runny nose or cough, our regular pediatrician thought it probably was just a virus and didn't give them Tamiflu. She also stopped Sarah's Tamiflu and said that she didn't think Sarah should have been given Tamiflu to begin with. While we were sitting in the examination room, I noticed Sarah was breaking out in a rash all over her body. She also had blisters in her mouth. Thankfully, the pediatrician didn't think it was roseola! She thought it was one of two things, either a viral rash/blisters or that she was allergic to the Tamiflu. So now we are saying that Sarah has a possible/questionable allergy to Tamiflu. She was also diagnosed with a really bad ear infection so now she is on Augmentin for 10 days instead of Tamiflu!

I took Eliana's temperature when we got home yesterday afternoon. It was 103.5 and I gave her Motrin. I checked her again an hour later and it had gone up to 104.3! So I gave her Tylenol and sponged her off for a while. By the time she went to bed, the fever was down to 102. Emily's temperature never got above 102.0.

Today, everyone is doing good so far. No fever yet, but we will see this afternoon. It must be going around as I was talking to Emily's assistant principal yesterday while waiting for Emily. Her daughter was sent home last week with a fever for a couple of days and no other symptoms. Emily's teacher told me that after Emily was checked out, two more students were checked out early for having a fever. I hope we will be back to our normal routine in a couple of days!