Saga

Last week was one FULL of challenges for me. In fact, the past month has been one of worry and frustration --- I have not blogged about it because I had no answers and did not want to raise alarm in anyone. But now that things are clearer, I feel ready to talk about it.

Kate has been ill for about 5 weeks now. She has had recurring, persistent fevers for over a month. Every single day she will have a regular temp of about 99.5 – mild enough, but when her base temp is a cool 97.6, 99.5 is warm for her. Then each day the fever would spike at some point to 101 or 102 and she would be miserable. The color would drain from her face, she would be lethargic and incredibly cranky. Then when the fever would break she would be absolutely drenched in sweat. This repeated itself every day for a month. About 2 or three weeks in, she started to lose her appetite on top of all the lethargy and irritability and getting her to eat anything was close to impossible. She is already a tiny peanut, so to see her get even a little more skinny was frightening. We had to figure out how to get her to drink those awful vitamin shakes. Through all of this, we had at least one doctor appointment a week, trying to figure it out. Initial general bloodwork showed all was well. Then there was a urine sample which turned out to have white blood cells in it, so they thought maybe it was a bladder infection/uti. They put her on antibiotics and nothing changed – and the further urine culture came back normal. So they took her off antibiotics. They continued to check her to make sure nothing was changing – no swollen lymph nodes etc. She continued to present healthy as can be save for the fevers, lethargy and no appetite. It was SO frustrating. This is why, when in Miami, we kept it pretty low key with no major time at the beach etc. and why Kate has been missing so much school. I just wanted my personality-plus Kate back. She was not down for the count constantly. She would be fine and then all of a sudden it would hit her. Then she would be fine again. It was a mystery.

Anyway – last week started with both Nick and Liam being seriously sick on Easter. Not to mention Kate! So I was nursemaid all of Easter Sunday. Our friends the Dunns, who we were supposed to have dinner with, brought Easter dinner to our door instead. So sweet. But it was a pretty gross Easter otherwise!

Then Monday brought Kate a trip to an Infectious Disease Specialist referred to us by our pediatrician because we all wanted answers. Kate had to have some major blood work done. They took 4 vials and I had to hold her on my lap while she SCREAMED at the TOP of her lungs. At one point she looked at the nurse drawing blood and yelled in absolute fury and with complete conviction, “GET THAT OFF OF ME NOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!” She was poked and prodded, xrayed etc. and I tried very hard to remain positive and calm. Nick was with me at the appointment so that was great for me AND for Kate. Then we waited.

On Wednesday, Nick left for Boston on business (therein lies a whole other blog entry….let’s just say I was absolutely GREEN with envy – he visited some of our friends, walked the old haunts, and got to dine at an amazing restaurant for work). That left me alone with the kids - - - and remember that my Ever After Gowns event for which I plan for an entire year is three days away at that point. Kate woke Wednesday with a slight fever. She did not get off the couch. By 11am she was asking to take a bath (a strange request). By 1pm she was literally shaking violently with fever and her temp was 105. I called the pediatrician to find out what I should do given all the other issues Kate has been having and was put on hold for TWENTY minutes while Kate and her glazed eyes lay there whimpering that she was “fweezing” even as her body burned up. The ped then told me to call my specialist since it was in his camp now. Guess what, the specialist was out of town, I was informed by the receptionist. She said she would have another doctor call me. I called my ped back – on hold forever, hung up. Still no doctor call from the specialists. I gave Kate some Motrin and snuggled her. She whimpered and would not answer any of my questions and I came thisclose to calling 911. Then there was a break – my sitter called out of the blue and said “I got off work early today and I know you have a busy week with Ever After Gowns and Nick being out of town – do you need anything?” THANK YOU GOD! I had her come over to watch Liam so I could tend to Kate. I called the nurse at the specialist office who was wonderful and walked me through what to watch for with Kate. The motrin kicked in and she got down to 101/102. Between Lindsay and I, we managed to keep her comfy. I had Kate sleep in my bed that night. She spiked fevers, but was ok.

Thursday we had another appointment with the specialist to review a skin test they had given her. That came back fine, but we finally got some results. Kate has something called CMV, or Cytomegalovirus (spelling?). It is a virus that pretty much everyone in the world can catch and carry, but it does not usually activate in people. Kate showed both antibodies in her blood, meaning not only does she have it, but is battling it. It causes mono-like symptoms as in long term fever and lethargy etc., from what I understand. There is no cure for it and there is not much you can do for the patient other than make them comfortable. It will go away. Most things I have read say it lasts a few weeks, so I don’t know why kate has had it for 5 weeks, but that is something to ask the doc at the follow up. So it is nice to have some answers. She will be just fine.

It does not account, however, for the high 105 fever. The doc wants to explore that a little. She could have just caught a bug given that her immune system is pretty worn down from fighting the CMV for so long. But he wants to keep an eye on her and watch for some other things to make sure it is not anything else. But she has been great this weekend, so that is promising.

SO – that is the Kate saga. All will be well.

There is more, though! So I had spent all day Wed and Thurs. with a hugely feverish Kate and trying to keep an eye on Liam. Also trying to make sure Ever After Gowns preparations were secure. I was so tired. Thursday night I was sitting with the kids and went to go grab a quick bit of food in the kitchen. I took a bite and, well, my darn tooth broke! I was eating BREAD, people. My back molar must have been cracked and piece of tooth just fell off. Awesome. Called my dentist and left a message on the emergency line because I kind of consider a tooth broken in half an emergency. Can you believe he NEVER called me back? Even today on Monday, still no call. So I called another dentist and got an appointment for first thing Friday morning. So my cracked tooth and I put the kids to bed and waited for Nick.

When Nick got home, we were relaxing on the couch, enjoying the peace and quiet, and I happened to look up and see a water stain spreading across the ceiling. We both lept up and after much scrambling, some bucket placement, and stealthy investigation of the bathroom next to the kids rooms while they slept, called a plumber.

So Friday morning saw Nick taking the morning off work while I went to the Dentist at 7am for my cracked tooth (I need a root canal, by the way – that is scheduled for tomorrow – woo hoo), and the plumber came and literally took our toilet apart to the point where the toilet itself was sitting in another part of the room. $300 dollars later, it was fixed. Phew.

The sitter showed up and I went to drive to our event venue to make sure it was set up properly. I was driving down the highway and suddenly heard this awful sound coming from under the car! A flat maybe? I had no idea. I had to pull over the car at rush hour on the highway and found a part of my front bumper hanging off the car and dragging. I was quite a picure - bracing myself against the car and prying the mangled piece out from under the car as vehicles whizzed by at 60mph. I threw it in the backseat and drove off....nearly having a heart attack at merging into full flow highway traffic from a dead stop to 60mph. Seriously. Is all this really happening?

Saturday was our event and it was awesome. It was so so so so great. The most comical moment, however, was when Nick called me from home and said “So, is potpourri dangerous”? I asked in what context and he answered “if it is ingested”? I assumed it was ingested by Liam and was correct. Nick said Liam was in his playpen, but it was positioned near a china hutch we have. Liam somehow managed to open it and Nick found Liam chomping on some potpourri from a nearby bowl and holding a crystal Waterford champagne flute. Classic. Turns out potpourri is not poisonous, in case you are wondering.

Soooo….temperatures, tooth, toilets, travel, and more…..it was quite a week. I kept my head above water and most of it, really, is nothing when dealing with a health mystery like Kate’s. But the hits DID just keep on coming and I am glad that it is behind me!

There are still ripple effects to deal with. Have to take the car in to get the bumper fixed. Have a root canal tomorrow. Still have some doc appointments for Kate. But all will be well. This, too, shall pass.

Thanks for all the help and reassuring phone calls, everyone! Thanks to my Ever After people for an amazing event where we had 200 girls invited to come select free formalwear for their prom. Thanks to God for silver linings and strength.

Anyone want to go out for a drink? I could use one! ☺ Maybe we can munch on some potpourri and chat…..