This is going to be one long post! For 3 weeks I had the sickest kid I've ever seen. It all started on April 9. We noticed Brena's neck was getting a big bump on the side. I just thought her allergies were acting up. The kid has the world's largest tonsils - no joke. You can't see the uvula in the back of her mouth - it's just attached to her left tonsil. It's always like that. Every time she goes to the doctor they tell me she'll grow out of it. But, Monday night when she wouldn't get off the couch, I knew something was wrong. We went to the doctor Tuesday where they got her temp at 102.7. The doctor looked at her mouth and said she had "a raging case of tonsillitis and strep." He put her on Penicillin for 10 days and steroids for 48 hours. She seemed to do better, then after the steroids were gone her fever shot back up to 103.7 and didn't go down. She was also still not doing any better. She didn't want to do anything but sleep.
We went back to the doctor and he said he was baffled. He took her off the penicillin and put her on a stronger medicine - Augmentin. He also sent us up to ENT to make sure she didn't have an abscess on her tonsil - which can be fatal. Thankfully that was negative. We went home and she had the augmentin for a few days and she still was not getting better. Still 103.7 temps and sleeping constantly. I took her back to the doctor. Doctor is still baffled. They say throw the augmentin out, we are putting her on the strongest med they can - clyndimicin (no clue if I'm spelling any of these right). That was a week after we originally took her to the doctor. The next morning she wakes up and runs to the bathroom - she says she had an accident. Oh no - here we go with diarrhea. I thought it might be a one time thing. She had thrown up a couple days ago and that just happened once. Boy oh boy was I ever wrong...
So, now I think we are over the tonsillitis - finally. But, she is still have 103.7 fevers, constantly and now we have a new symptom - the diarrhea. And, this is not just any diarrhea. She is bleeding, filling toilets full of blood. Blood dripping down her legs. Bloody underwear. The first night it happened TJ was flying. I called my neighbor over to see what she thought. Brena was asleep on the couch and her underwear was all bloody. My neighbor said she would stay with Tyler while I took Brena around the corner to an ER. That was a really bad night at that ER. The nurse that did her vitals said he would just wait until the morning and take her back to the base and have her checked, that she would be ok through the night. They did say stop all medications and not to take anymore. I was so freaked out. I couldn't get a hold of TJ - he had no idea this was happening. I called the squadron and they said they would let him know as soon as he landed. He finally landed at around midnight. That was one very long night...
The next day we took her to the doctor where they did a stool test. It was a 3-5 day wait for the results. Meanwhile we are having to buy pull-ups for the first time in a few years for the poor child because she literally can't hold it. It just runs out of her. If I could tell you how many times a day that kid went to the bathroom - it would be well over 25/day. It was the most awful experience. And, it went on like that for
8 DAYS! We had to set up folding chairs in the bathrooms because she needed us in the bathroom with her. She would rest her head in your lap while she cried and moaned over the pain in her stomach. It was so sad. I cried a lot. I didn't think I would be able to keep going on like this. The doctors were telling me this was normal, augmentin can do that to you and it should go away. Well, it didn't.
We went back to the ER on base one morning because we felt that she was still not getting any better and we didn't want to go through the weekend without her being seen. They took another stool sample. We went back to the doctor on Monday 4/25 and they finally gave us a referral to a Pediatric GI Specialist at a Children's Hospital here in Jacksonville because they didn't know what else to do.
Wednesday 4/27, I get a call from the hospital saying that her stool tested positive for salmonella. I still can't believe it. I cannot for the life of me figure out where she could have picked it up. Yes, you get it from chicken, eggs, reptiles, etc. It can actually come from almost anything. But, here's the thing - she didn't go anywhere - she slept on the couch for days without moving. She didn't eat anything - she lost over 10% of her body weight. She had bones sticking out where I didn't even know you had bones. The health department called me on Friday and I had to answer their questions - normal procedure when there is a confirmed Salmonella case. They couldn't figure it out either. So, we will never know how/where she got it. All I can say it I hope to never, ever deal with Salmonella again.
Now, 3 weeks and 3 days later my little girl is finally normal and eating like a famished prisoner of war. I am so happy to have a normal life back! I guess that is until we go in for her tonsilectomy in June...
