Being Forced to Slow Down and Why Can't It ever just be a Cold?!

Warning: this post may be TMI as in I do talk about blood squirting from a bodily orifice.  It is just really one small section of this post so you could just skip that paragraph.

I spent this past week snuggling with my daughter.  You know, sitting on the couch.  Snuggling.  Through an entire Mickey Mouse episode.  An experience that is quite foreign to me and Ellie.

The cost to receive those snuggles was high.  Too high.

I suppose that I should be a bit more specific when I say things about wanting Ellie to slow down, be calmer, or sit-through-one-freakin'-episode-of xyz.  I suppose I should add in "and not be sick".

That's right, I got my snuggles and the Bear slowed down because she was/is sick.  Ellie had an awesome day at school on Monday morning.   To celebrate her awesome behavior, we went to speech therapy. . . and Quizno's.  She did not do so well.  She was quite emotional and teary and didn't eat.  I told Andrew that evening she was coming down with something.  She spiked a fever that night.

Now, typically when Ellie is sick, she likes to pile on 2 or 3 infections at the same time (remember the coxsackie virus/cellulitis/sinusitis episode?) and demand to "play climb slide" because someone forgot to tell her that she is supposed to feel like crap.  This go around, no one needed to tell her.  Girlfriend felt cruddy.

Just breaks your heart, doesn't it?

Since it had been nearly 6 months since our lasts ER visit, Ellie decided it was time to reacquaint herself with the ER staff.  That evening she was straining to poop.  Seriously, nothing of great excitement or really out of the ordinary.  Only when she pooped, a large amount of blood came out.  It then continued to stream, bright red from her little bottom.  Did I mention it was every where?  Up her back, between her legs, on the carpet, all over her old and new diaper?  Did I mention it was BLOOD?!?  Not poop, but blood?! Now, I am certain it wasn't really a large amount, but as a mother, it appeared to be gushing like a geyser and my daughter was clearly going to die by going into hypovolemic shock and clearly had an intestinal bleed.

In the back of my medical mind, I knew she had a rectal fissure from straining.

Guess what we found out at the ER?  Guess?  Yes, a fissure in her rectum.
We also confirmed that she has a fever and a rash, but no other signs of illness.  Diagnosis: virus.

A funny thing about viruses here.  The fevers are rip roaring at night and then can be gone in the morning.  Hence why your child must "fever free for 24 hours" before returning to school.  Wednesday morning she woke up fever-free and was in full bear-itude.  I exclaimed "you are going to school tomorrow, young lady!" as she grins at me from the bathroom sink which she reached by scaling the cabinets with her bare feet.

Of course, by afternoon she was back up to 102.  So much for school!  However, I did get all my snuggles.  The Chunky Chicken only wanted mama.

This brings me to today.  Thursday.  Bear likes to do things in style.

Somebody was refusing to walk.  At first I thought that she was just tired and not feeling well.  She was laying around and falling asleep and whatnot.  Then I realized that SHE COULDN'T WALK.  She wanted the iPad and cried and cried and cried until I carried her over to it.  She tried to stand and fell on her butt.  Andrew and I kept trying to get her to walk and she refused to do anything other than butt scoot using her arms to propel herself forward.

Then I whipped out the big guns.  A cookie.  She took two steps and was severely limping on her right side before she fell back on her butt.  Not wanting to head back over to the ER and be considered frequent fliers, I contacted the pediatrician's office.  Our regular pedi was booked, but they could squeeze us in with another doctor in the practice.

I did not like her.

She was fixed on the rash.  She kept telling me it was roseola because usually after days of high fever the rash appears.  I kept telling her that the rash appeared the same time as the fever.  Plus, I don't care about the damn rash!  I want to know why she isn't walking!!!!  Is her joint or bone infected?  Is it leukemia?  What-Is-It?

Her physical exam was unremarkable aside from the rash and the limping.  Seriously, this kiddo had awesome range of motion of all joints and no redness or swelling.  She did an x-ray of her hip which was negative and continued to talk about the rash being a virus.  Okay, what about the limping?!  I asked about blood work, but was told she hadn't had the fever for 5 days and that if she still has it on day 5 to come back.  Uh, tomorrow is day 5.

Bear refusing to walk this morning.

At this point, I think, but am not entirely sure that her diagnosis is transient or toxic synovitis which is essentially inflammation of the hip (or another joint) that can follow after a virus.

By the time we got home, Bear was walking more, but looked pretty drunk.  She also had no fever.  Depending how things go, we may head back to our pediatrician or even the ER and not this whack-a-doo we just saw. . . and I will be more forceful about the blood draw.  Until then, I shall give my Drunk Sailor Bear some Motrin and tell her to rest.  Ha!  Rest!

Okay, I am really not feeling so great about all of this . . . I think that I may take her back in tomorrow anyway. . . mama gut