I'm having Nicholas get a blood test today to rule out or confirm Dengue Fever. Rebecca went to bed last night with 103.4 fever and woke up with the same, so we'll possibly find out something new about her. My neck has swollen up which is a common symptom when I get ill. Oh, and Nicholas just smashed his finger in a drawer and it has swollen up, so depending on how it is in 1/2 hour, he may get an x-ray to see if it's fractured. Jonathon seems to be mostly OK (at least he's acting OK), Katherine went to school and Ian went to work.
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Want to know what happened?
Well, 4 hours later we were heading home. That's a long 4 hours with 3 kids in a rather small clinic. But it was worth it.
Jonathon: Fine. Didn't get him checked out. He's not bleeding from anywhere.
Me: My temperature was 95.8. No typo, really. My neck is swollen. No news. Can't do anything for it. The nurse did a throat swab for strep, came back negative. One of my tonsils has a sore so she recommended gargling but seeing as I can't move my head and it hurts to swallow and talk, I'll just wait it out like I do every other time. Maybe I'll take some tylenol though.
Rebecca: Her temperature was 103. Amoebic cysts still present. She's on a stronger dose of Flagyl for 10 days and this time I went to the pharmacy to get the liquid. 3tsp per dose/3 times a day means 8 little bottles of Flagyl. Tomorrow I get to go to the school and give them her noon doses for the rest of the week. She had blood taken from her finger. Her white blood cell count is high. Sign of an infection obviously. They wanted to check for a UTI, but Rebecca has issues with peeing in a cup at the doctor's office.
Nicholas: He gave blood like the biggest champ ever. I attribute much of it to the stellar phlebotomist we have here who can make a needle go in and out and you won't feel a thing. Seriously. She's awesome. Anyhow, not even a scrunched face from him and the draw was done. Drum roll please. The test for Dengue Fever was....
Negative!
So, what is up with him? The doctor had an idea and had the tech run one other test and guess what. Nicholas has Mononucleosis. I can wipe the sweat from my brow now. The doc explained that Mono is widespread among little kids and most peds don't bother checking for it in the States. I asked why it's such a huge deal for high schoolers then and apparently it hits the older kids harder. We've all heard of people being hospitalized for it. Here's my theory. Kids have these viruses that are chalked up to "just another virus" when they're actually carrying Mono. If those same kids get hit up again in High School, it hits that much harder and is a greater risk. But since most people don't know if their kids had Mono initially when they were little, the connection isn't made. Well, that's my theory anyway. What they were specifically looking for in his blood test was his platelet level. Normal rage starts around 140. Dengue patients have low platelet counts. Nicholas's was over 700. That's what tipped the doc off to possible Mono. It should go down as he gets better. Of course I'll watch him for signs of fever or anything else odd. At this point he has to be missing a limb. The doc did ask if he'd said anything about a sore throat, but honestly, with everything else that was going on I don't know that he would have even noticed a sore throat.
So there you have it. Nicholas just needs TLC as he works his way through this for the next 4-6 weeks and Rebecca will survive. As will I. Just don't ask me to talk, or eat, or make me laugh. It hurts too much.
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