Sunday, April 10, 2011

Emily's turn in the ER

A few weeks ago I mentioned I had felt "the sickest I ever have" and Emily wasn't feeling so hot either. So we marched off to the dreaded doctor. I try not to visit a doctor more than once a year. They diagnosed me with strep and Emily with a sinus infection. They prescribed us antibiotics and sent us on our way. I felt SO horrible that I would have taken anything at that point. It truly took me about two weeks to fully feel like myself again but I thankfully got better. Well Emily never really seemed to fully recover. I noticed she began looking more pale, she would push food away, then slowly a cough developed, and 5 days ago a really high fever.

I am the over protective mom that still wakes up in the middle of the night and I checks on my 12 year old girl while she sleeps....go ahead and laugh :). Anyway, she was burning up again last night. I got very concerned....like I do...and I couldn't sleep. In addition Jude decided he wanted to play the whine game all night long. I kept waking Em up to take her temp, give her meds, and cool her off. Finally about 9am I whisked her off the the doctor. Em ....for some fateful reason asked to go to Children's in Dallas. We had debated on Care Now, minute clinic, or Baylor. Emily suddenly spouted off Children's. They quickly took us back when they got Em's temp, her vitals, and saw how pale she was. The doctor walked into the room, took one look at her and said "I will be you money she has mono". Really?? You can tell that from looking at her?? So they came to take blood which was HORRIBLE! Em hasn't eaten much in the last few days so her blood was thick and it was hard to get it out of her body. She yelped as they poked her several times and my heart ached for her. I quickly checked myself and said "Em remember Jude does this every three months" and she said "I don't know how". They also did urine tests, chest X rays, and more.

About an hour later the doctor walked in and said "Yep it's mono". WHAT? Isn't that the 'kissing disease"?? Oh I am so uneducated sometimes. Mono is generally contracted by kids 10-15 years old by sharing drinks, being coughed on, or being sneezed on by someone who doesn't take precautions. They said Em has probably had it for at least 3 weeks now. Emily is now wearing a mask, cleans her hands every chance she gets, and doesn't cough on anyone. Our concern? Emily AND Jude. Poor Em is miserable....and I do mean miserable. Every part of her body hurts and you can tell her system is fighting hard to conquer this sickness. Jude.......well the sickness can cause liver damage and with Jude's medications it could be a bad combo.  So we are taking extra precautions with him.

What about Mike and I? Well I am about 90% positive I had it when when we originally walked into the doctors office several weeks ago. The ER mentioned that if we had made the decision to go to the urgent care today they probably wouldn't have caught it. I think Em and I were both previousley misdiagnosed. So I am hoping this means little Juder has a resistance to it and that Em will conquer it soon.

I hate to leave her tomorrow but I know she will be in good hands.
I really hope she gets better soon, the poor girl.

4 comments:

Bronx Cataldo's said...

Maura and Eoghan had mono 2 years ago Maurs was only in kindergarten and she was the first to get it.Eoghan came down with it about a week or so later and it was about 5 weeks before they were back to their normal selfs. Finnian had Epstein Barr virus we figure he got it when he was in the hospital in October the only symptom he had was a rash that looked like measels. I made the doc check for everything and he was positive for EBV. So it is common but underdiagnosed.

jocalyn said...

Oh no! Hope she gets better soon. I'm typing this as I sit in the ER with my son. We have been here for 5 hours! It's a completely different ballgame when your healthy child gets sick, huh?

Praying Jude doesn't catch it.

Anonymous said...

I'm 30 years old and developed mono the same way last year, while my boyfriend of several years never got it (and we did kiss before we knew what I have). I remember having a sore throat that they initially thought was strep at the emergency walk-in. Luckily I went back to see my family physician who had another idea and drew blood - mono was confirmed. Isn't it interesting how some doctors just know and others don't even suspect it?
I know for some people it can take forever to recover but I was back at work within about 2 weeks. Still tired after that but able to function. My boyfriend never did catch anything (never had it before either) and refused to stay away during that time :)

Katy said...

I got mono in college. Not exactly sure how. Went to a party and like five people who were there ended up contracting it. It is NOT good and I was also mis-diagnosed for several weeks before they got it right. Even after Emily is "better," she will probably need to take it easy and have lots of naps. I think it was months before I had all my energy back.