3rd Trip to the ER

Well as I mentioned in my last post, Elliot was up all night with a high fever. I alternated Tylenol & Motrin all day, but her fever didn't seem to break. Every time I checked it was 104.5. And on top of that she had developed a lot of congestion in her chest. It sounded like she was a 40 year old smoker. We decided to take her into our local CareNow. Her pediatrician is in Dallas & I did not feel like driving all the way out there during rush hour traffic. Plus, she probably wouldn't have been able to squeeze us in that late in the day. Anyway, the doctor said that her throat looked bad & ordered a strep test. It came back positive. But that wasn't all. He decided to refer us to the ER because there were some indicators that she could possibly have Kawasaki Disease. One of those indicators is "strawberry" tongue. At this point, I did not freak out because I highly doubted that she had this since it is pretty rare. But I will admit there were a few times later in the day when I was on the verge of tears on the inside just because E looked so pitiful & I felt so bad for her & what if?!

We made it to the ER & the doctor examined her. Elliot does not have strep. She said that it is not strep season & that a strep test was unnecessary & isn't very accurate. E does have a slight ear infection in her left ear though. She was a little puzzled as to why the other guy thought Kawasaki. She said that Elliot's tongue was not "strawberry". It would have been super red & E would have been out of control screaming. Plus you also have to have a super high fever for at least 5 days. And strep & coughing doesn't really go with that diagnosis, etc. Whew, what a relief! That CareNow doc was mistaken on everything he told us!

Just when I thought we would be getting out of there, they decided to take a urine sample to make sure she didn't have a UTI. This involved inserting a catheter, which as you can imagine is not very pleasant. The test came back negative. Then another doctor came in to talk to me (Lane said he's world renown) & checked E out. He decided to order a chest x-ray since she sounded so bad. That came back clear. Then he ordered fluids through IV since Elliot was refusing liquids. That made me feel better because I would have been so worried if she continued to refuse them & got dehydrated (which she already was). So anyway, we finally ended up leaving around 11pm with a prescription for a high dosage of Amoxicillin that she will take for the next 10 days. Hopefully that will treat her congestion as well.

I have to say Elliot was a champ throughout it all. She handled everything so well & was not freaking out or flailing around when they had to do the catheter, chest x-ray, or IV. And even though she felt so bad, while she was lying on the bed, she would still pucker her lips to give me a kiss (on her own free will...several times!). Sweet girl.