Medical Drama

So, the kids are in bed and I should be napping too, but I figured I would vent about all our junk going on this month for a minute.  My son is having some issues with his lab work.  When he turned 1 they had some bloodwork done and his white blood cell count came back low.  His pediatrician had it redrawn and it was lower than the first time.  Not only that but it is a particular kind of the white blood cells that are needed to fight off infection that are low in the count.  So, we haven't quite been able to address that yet because he got sick.  He came down with a fever on Sunday, he was cutting his 3rd molar, so we figured in about another day it would be gone and he would be back to normal.  No such luck!  Not only was his fever consistently around 99 or higher but he had diarrhea as well.  By Tuesday my daughter was running a fever too. With some new information about the swine flu,etc, we figured with my son's low white blood cell count, we couldn't take the risk of it just going away.  Tuesday morning we got both kids in to see their pediatrician.  It turned out that our daughter had a double ear infection and sore throat.  Our son also had a sore throat and if it hadn't have been that they were seen together, they wouldn't have given him anything because other than the sore throat, there weren't many other symptoms.  Oh yeah and by the time they were seen, the tylenol took effect and their fevers returned to normal so that wasn't even a factor in the doctor's diagnoses.  Anyways, so they both got sent home with some amoxicillin.  Then, this morning I picked up my son out of his crib and for the first time in 4 days I realized he wasn't hot to the touch anymore.

  Then I saw the rash!  It is all over his torso, neck and face.  At first I started blaming myself, thinking that I somehow brought home the chickenpox from my poor Dad who has been dealing with the shingles.  Last Saturday I paid him a visit with some dinner.  But after some elimination of theories and verifying of symptoms online, we determined he has Roseola which is the same thing my daughter had about 18months ago.  When she had it, we found out from my Mother-in-law that my Husband had it as a baby/toddler.  So, now that my son has gotten it too, I just expect that our next child will have it around the same age as well.  But for crying out loud, we went from "it's just his molar" to, "could it be the swine flu and he's got the low white blood cell thing going on and..."to "okay it's Roseola, we've dealt with this before, not as big a deal as it could be."  Now Roseola sounds scary but it really is okay and I am now speaking with having had both of my children get it.  The symptoms my son has are, sore throat, diarrhea (which caused him a major yeast infection we are still fighting, his poor bum is so raw), and the rash that comes ONLY after the high fever suddenly goes away.    Other than being grumpy because his body is all whacked out, it is nothing that can't be managed.  I am hoping the amoxicillin is helping and I may need more diaper rash ointment and tylenol by the end of the week but it is manageable.  Roseola is a virus and after the fever breaks, the affected baby should stay home another 24hrs for it to get through his system.  In a day or so the rash will be going away and he should be getting back to normal but the guessing game was horrible!

On the GOOD News-My Husband is GRADUATING!!! He will be finished with his Bachelor's Degree Program next week.  He is happy and we are happy.  He has decided to continue and get his Master's Degree, but what a hurdle we have just gotten over.  We are so proud of him, the kids and I.  His is doing so much to make it better for us in the long run and we are so grateful for that.  We Love Him So Much! I am so, so proud of the sacrifice he has made.  He is gone 1 night out of the week for class and sometimes has group meetings for school, but as we do miss him we know what he is doing and are thankful for it.  Congratulations Babe, You are AWESOME and a Great Example to our kids!