Roseola

Last week, my poor baby had a fever for three days. She was a little furnace that would only cool down with medicines every three hours. She needed to be held, cuddled, played with and sat with while she watched "street." (Sesame Street) This was unfortunately also the three days that Jimmy had a meeting in Birmingham. Thankfully my dad was off and since he was coming up to watch Macey for my doctor's appointment, he came a day early and stayed a day late. So a horrible three days was more than bearable having my dad help out.

Her fever fluctuated between 100 and 102 for the first two days. I was convinced we were just getting teeth, since Macey has six and is overdue for several more to make their appearance. Jenny's son, Christian, always ran a "high" fever when he got the more difficult teeth. Since Macey had no other symptoms of sickness, just very loose dirty diapers, I felt comfortable that I was treating her fever and that she would be feeling better soon. By Friday morning, day three of the fever, we decided we should visit the doctor before the weekend.

We saw a very nice doctor that we had not seen in the past and she suggested that we start eliminating possible sicknesses since nothing appeared to be wrong with Macey. We started with a strep test that came back negative five minutes later. Then we tried a catheter to rule out a urinary tract infection. It was an awful experience that didn't work so we moved on to a lab to have her blood drawn. Also an awful experience but thankfully they got some blood and confirmed that her blood showed everything was fine. We were both exhausted by the time we got home and laid down for naps.

Friday evening, Macey's fever was under 100 when we put her to bed. When I woke up to check her temperature at 1:30a, her fever was gone. She remained fever free but a rash started to appear on Saturday. Thankfully, mom and dad had come up to bring us dinner (and a new monitor!) and mom noticed the rash looked like Roseola. After scouring the internet, we concluded that a high fever, loose dirty diapers and a rash were all confirming signs that baby girl had Roseola.

It's nice to know that there was a reason for Macey's first fever, but we still only have six teeth. I wish Jimmy had been home to help during those three days but I'm so thankful my dad had the time off and gave up his three days to help us. It was nice to have someone help remember when I had last given her medicine, her last temperature, what we should all eat for lunch and dinner and support at the doctor and blood lab.