Health Update and Photos

I do not have too much to report with regards to my previous post on Fever of Unknown Origin except to say that if you want to "cure" something that has been going on a long while, just walk into the doctor's office.  Ellie has not experienced her strange, random fevers since her visit with Infectious Disease [ID] last week.  This is a record since her fevers had a 3-6 day cycle.  She has, however, been extremely tired, agitated, and cranky.  She gives new meaning to the phrases "terrific 3's" and "cranky pants".  I believe that she is either experiencing a massive growth spurt, again, or is trying to fight something off.  She is unbelievably tired and is not like my little Bear-Bear at all.  This child was Bear at 10:20am (yes, AM as in morning) today:

Ellie has been laying around.  She plays, but will have blankie in her mouth and laying her head down on a chair, table, grocery cart handle, bench, etc.  On Friday I had to end our play group early because she thought that 11:45am was an appropriate naptime. I am also having to wake her up from her naps, after 3 hours. This is very uncharacteristic of my hyperactive, climbing possessed Bear.  All of that being said, it is not inconceivable to think that perhaps my little darling has been hosting some wild, middle of the night parties with her babies and stuffed puppy.

Friday morning I contacted ID to see if her blood results came in.  I received a return call from the ID nurse.  I consider that a good sign.  Whenever a doctor calls to speak with you, that is a bad sign.  A nurse is a good sign. . . usually. The nurse informed me that only some of her results were back.  Her CBC was normal and her platelet levels returned to their normal levels.  This again rule-out the big L [Leukemia]!  Insert happy dance and a whoot-whoot. Her immunoglobulin G [IgG]  levels are low in two of the subclasses.  There are 4 subclasses.  She has low levels of IgG-class 2 and IgG-class 4.  This is not too terribly exciting.  I will go into this more on a later post, but it means that the Bear has a cruddy immune system and has trouble fighting off infections against bugs that she has already been exposed to.  Many of these bugs cause. . . are you ready. . . ear infections, sinus infections, and pneumonia.  Huh?  I guess that would explain the recurrent sinus/adenoid infection from January - April.

Immunoglobulins are essentially antibodies.  Antibodies fight bacteria and viruses and whatnot.  What all of this means for Ellie and what treatment is needed, if any will be discussed at her next ID visit at the end of July.  Again, this is a good thing.  If things were bad, an office visit would occur at a much earlier date.

Currently, we are awaiting the results of her tetanus and strep pneumonia antibody levels.  Ellie has received vaccinations for both of these bacterial diseases.  If her immune system is behaving wonky, she may not have developed enough antibodies to protect her from these nasty bugs.  If that is the case, she could still get a tetanus infection.  Goody.  I believe that we are also waiting for a few more tests to  be completed and I will keep you all updated once I know more.  If you are absolutely dying to learn more about Immunoglobulin G Subclass Deficiency, you can click on the link