This is going to be a tough post to write because it makes me upset to talk about. I thought about not posting it, but I thought some of my family would like to know what's been going on here the past week. Well, to say the least, it's been a nightmare. That's actually an understatement. It started last saturday (3/19/11). After Brianna & I went for a girls day out, when we got home, she mentioned she was cold. I covered her up with a blanket. Jack suggested I take her temperature. I thought that was weird, but I did it anyway. I was surprised to find out she had a 101.4 temp. She had been acting fine all day up until that point. I gave her some motrin and had her lay down for her nap. She also said her tummy hurt a little bit. When she got up from her nap, a few hours later, her temperature was normal and she said she felt much better. We thought maybe she was just tired and needed some rest. She ate dinner real well, but later on that evening, she said she wasn't feeling well again. I took her temperature and it was back up to 102.3. I gave her more motrin & had her go to bed. When she got up sunday morning (3/20/11) she said she still wasn't feeling real well. She didn't want to eat too much for breakfast and still had a fever. She was still complaining of a stomach ache. I called the exchange for our pediatrician's office and spoke to the doctor on call. I was going to take her to an urgent care, but he advised against that because most don't have a pediatric doctor on staff and they couldn't do tests that she could need. He said if we could hold off by treating the symptoms and bring her into the office tomorrow, that would be better. So, we did that. I was able to get her into the doctor monday to see what was going on. I would like to mention that our regular pediatrician that usually sees the kiddos, his day off is on Monday. Yeah, I know...how convenient. I try to get my kids to hold off until tuesday, if we can, but Brianna was too sick to wait another day. The covering doctor said she probably had a stomach virus and it could take between 7-10 days for her to start feeling better. As you know, there isn't anything you can do for a virus except ride it out and let your body fight it off. I also showed the doctor her gums. The upper left side of her gums were beet red and kinda swollen. She also had a sore on the left side of her bottom lip. He said that it looked like she bit her lip and bumped her mouth. She should be better in a few days & the fever should be going away by wednesday. Since her throat was red, he also did a strep test just to be on the safe side. Thankfully, that came back negative. The poor girl is getting paranoid about those tests because she's had so many of them. Well, Brianna STILL wasn't any better by wednesday. She was actually worse. Every day, there was a new symptom that would come up. We were having to medicate her with either Tylenol or Motrin every 4-6 hours for the fever. As long as she had medicine in her, she said she felt half way decent. When it wore off, she said she felt sick again. I took off work to get her into OUR doctor on wednesday. One thing I really like about our pediatrician's office is they're really good about working in a child in an emergency. I have to say, I am soooo thankful that we see who we see. I don't care if I do have to drive over a hour to see him, it is totally worth it. I trust him with my kids' health completely. He is great with our kids and they love him. He is what I call scary smart. He is awesome! He'll come into a room, greet you, then sit down and ask what's going on with the child. As I'm telling him what's going on with whomever we're there with at the time, he's jotting down notes on a tablet. He lets me talk as long as I need to & NEVER rushes me. Then, he'll put the child up on the exam table and ask a few more questions. In a few minutes, he'll say, "This is what she/he has." He's ALWAYS right. When he told me what Brianna had, I about died. He said some how, she contracted HSV-1 (herpes simplex virus) from someone who had a cold sore over the past week or so. He asked me if I knew of anyone who had had one. Jack nor I have never had a cold sore/fever blister (same difference). We do have a few family members in the family that do have one right now. The doctor said there's no way to tell who she got it from for sure, but it could possibly have been from them. Brianna had close contact with these people a few days before her symptoms came up. I'm not saying she got this from them, but it's very possible. This makes me want to shelter her all that much more and never let anyone see her again. If you could see how sick this little girl has been, you would all understand. She's had a fever as high as 104.3 and has looked like death warmed over. SERIOUSLY. It's been terrible. I've never seen her this sick in my life. The only time I've seen a kid as sick, was when Jacob got swine flu about 1 1/2 years ago. It is so sad to see your kids like that. Especially when there's NOTHING you can do to help them out. The thing that TICKED me off more than anything was when the doctor said, "There is medicine we can give for HSV, but you have to catch it with in 48 hours of a break out. Brianna has had this too long and is past the time frame now to give her the medicine." I told him, "I DID have her here in that time frame. We were told that she bumped her mouth and bit her lip. If she would've been diagnosed at that time, she COULD"VE had the medicine and wouldn't be suffering like she is now." The doctor said that sometimes it's hard to diagnosis HSV-1 at first until it's full blown. So, in other words, he was telling me there was nothing we could do for her. She had to ride this out all on her own. He said one thing we could do for the pain was to mix a 50/50 solution of Maalox & benedryl together and have her swish it in her mouth, then spit it out. She has to do this 4 times a day. It is helping her and her sores are healing up now. She's atleast able to eat a few things again. She said her mouth hurt her so bad, she couldn't eat anything and would cry. She told me a few times she was starving because she was so hungry. When she was weighed at the doctor's office, she lost 3 lbs because she couldn't eat. The kid can't afford to lose weight. She's skin and bones already. She doesn't even weigh 40 lbs yet. I have been so worried about her! I was so angry about all of this, all I could do was cry. I felt so helpless. If I could take her place in a heartbeat, I would. It broke my heart to see her like she was. Our doctor told us that it would take her atleast 10 days to start feeling better. Wednesday was day 4...Monday was day 2. GRRRRRR. She's had to miss school all this week and probably won't be able to go for the majority of next week too. HSV-1 is EXTREMELY contagious. You can catch it from someone who has a sore, but it's crusted over like it's healing. The doctor said the virus is STILL present. You can even catch it from someone who has HSV, but doesn't presently have any sores or symptoms. I have been trying to educate Brianna about NOT sharing cups, plates, silverware with ANYONE or not to kiss ANYONE on the mouth. ESPECIALLY when she OR they have sores on their mouth. We've really been drilling this into her head not to share her eating & drinking items with her little brother too. OMG...I would DIE if he got this too. How horrible!!! I'm happy to report that today, her temp has teetered between 98.5 & 99.4 WITHOUT medication. That's a good sign. She still won't be able to go to school until she's been fever free for a few days AND w/o it returning. The doctor said if her fever goes away then comes back, we have to bring her in IMMEDIATELY because she could have a secondary infection somewhere. I'm praying like a mad woman that she gets over this and it stays away. The doctor said IF she gets an outbreak again, it won't be this bad. He said the first time a person gets this, they're REALLY sick. He said, she may never get another outbreak and maybe she will. Who knows. The bad thing is, now she's going to have to live with this virus inside her body for the rest of her life. I'm so angry about this whole thing I could just scream!!! Today, she said she is feeling better. She's eating a little bit more. Poor thing has barely eating anything in a week!! I need a magic wand! I didn't think to take pictures of when this first started, but I did take a few pictures today. Her mouth looks MUCH better than it did wednesday. Her gums were so swollen, you couldn't see a few of her teeth! Yeah, that's BAD!!
I wasn't able to get up real close because the picture would become blurry. You can see her sore on the outside of her lip in this picture. It is crusting over now and looks much better than it did a few days ago. It was oozing and NASTY before. You can also kinda see how red her gums are on the top left (your right).
Again, I wasn't able to get up real close in this picture either. But, if you look at her gums on her upper left side of her mouth (on your right) you can tell they're still swollen. They don't look that red in this picture because the flash was so bright it washed the color out. She also says the roof of her mouth is really sore too.
This is a HUGE improvement from a few days ago. We're hoping that by the middle of next week, she'll be able to go back to school. In the meantime, we're trying to keep her away from people and from kissing Jacob. Heaven forbid if she would give it to anyone else. I didn't realize HSV-1 made people this sick. This makes me cry to see her suffer like this. It's times like these that's very difficult to be a mom. You hate to see your kiddos sick! :( I'm saying prayers like crazy that she gets well soon AND doesn't give it to anyone else. I don't think I could handle this with another kids. That for sure would kill me right there on the spot. UGH.
**I want to give a SPECIAL thanks to Gene & Beth for saying prayers with me the other evening for myself because of what I'm going thru now & for Brianna to get better too. You two have helped me out in the past and have prayed with me through some very difficult times I've gone thru. I am so thankful to have you two in my life and to have you as my friends! It's weird, but it's like a calm comes over me after I pray with you two! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Love you both!!! :) (Beth, I hope you feel better soon too! Sorry you're going thru what you are as well.)
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