I'll just jump right in and tell you where our journey with Hotta Molly started. In August of 2013, about 3 weeks after moving into our new house our youngest, spunky little girl got a fever. She was a few days shy of 10 months old. It was about 102-103, so I took her to the pediatrician. That was a Monday. The doctor told us her ears were good, her throat was good, and her lungs were good and it was likely just a virus. I've come to hate that phrase, "just a virus." We went home with instructions that if she still had fever on Wednesday to bring her back to do a urinalysis. After a restless night, Tuesday arrived and my mom came over to hold my sweet baby so I could pick up and clean some. My sweet baby slept soundly on her Grammy. While I was putting some things away in the back of the house I heard my mom call my name...in a panic. When I got to the living room my mom said she thought Molly was having a seizure. I dialed 911, she was definitely having a seizure. I felt completely helpless, scared, terrified....it was horrible. She changed colors, we couldn't really tell if she was breathing or not. The fire department took FOREVER to get there and the fire station is literally a block and a half from our new house. That was my first ride in an ambulance...never again. She was barely coming around when we got to the hospital (the seizure had subsided before we left the house). We were admitted to the hospital where we spent 6 days. She had a high fever, 105+, but no other symptoms. They said her white blood cells were elevated, but it was likely due to the seizure. They ran lots of lab tests, I think we had a chest x-ray,and I'm not even sure what else. They found nothing wrong with her and we were sent home (still with 104 fever). We were told it was probably "just a virus." Yep, still hate that phrase. That fever episode lasted 10 days, if I remember correctly. I was thankful it was gone and already dreading her getting a fever, scared to death of another seizure.
Fast forward 1 month, nearly to the day. September of 2013. She got another fever. I tried controlling it with Tylenol and Motrin with plans to visit the pediatrician on Monday. You know, kids never get sick when the office is open, they only get sick after 6 o'clock and on weekends. I had a hard time getting her fever to go below 103 so my husband and I decided I should take her to the ER...just in case. I loaded her up in the car and made it less than a mile down the road, she let out a really funny scream/cry so I turned on the lights and saw her starting to seize. Dang! I was really hoping it never happened again. Luckily our town is small enough that the hospital is only about 10 minutes away...I think I made it there in 5. They got us straight back to a room when we got there, the doctor checked her out and found nothing wrong with her, no ear infection, no strep throat, her lungs were clear...I was really hoping for something, they did give her a shot of antibiotic just in case. We were released after a few hours with instructions to follow up with the pediatrician. I did ask about the Tylenol and Motrin dosages...evidently I wasn't giving her enough. :( That was a horrible lesson to learn. Now I always have her correct dosage written on the bottle. We followed up with a pediatrician (not ours, but another one in the practice) who said, once again, it was "probably just a virus" but gave her a second dose of antibiotic shot "just in case." After 6 or 7 days her fever was gone and she was back to her happy, spunky self.
Now, every 4-5 weeks since then she gets a high fever 105-106 that lasts 4-7 days. It puts a stop on the whole household. My older children get somewhat neglected (don't worry they still get plenty of attention), we watch more TV and eat more "convenience" foods. Nearly every time we're told it's "probably just a virus". This has been ongoing for 9 months now. After about 4 months, I asked about Periodic Fever Syndromes and the pediatrician agreed that it may be that. Our plan of action was to document in her chart each time she got fever. I started a fever journal that documented the fevers and times/doses of Tylenol and Motrin that she got. I researched and googled it a lot, the problem I had was there was no cure, just management of the fever. That was not really what I was hoping for.
Come back tomorrow for the rest of the story. :)
