We were out to eat yesterday afternoon with my Ma & Pa and Dave & Amber at Redstone when my sister texted me that Tucker was running another temp and complaining of back pain.
We left to go pick him up. He was lying on the couch at my mom and dad's, burning hot and saying that his back hurt. His fevers have been cyclic over the last year or so, but the back pain is still something new. At his three year well-child visit, he was complaining of back pain and all they did was check a urine. It was negative, of course.
I had had enough. I needed someone other than his primary doc to see him when he's sick for a second, I mean third, I mean fourth opinion. I had originally been satisfied with the diagnosis the ENT gave him, the periodic fever syndrome, but why is he having back pain? I needed an answer. We left the girls with my mom and dad and took Tucker and Milo down to Children's emergency room.
It only took us an hour and a half to get there because the interstate was closed. How convenient. And then our exit to Hiawatha wasn't accessible from the detour so we took another detour. Also convenient.
We finally arrived and Tucker was seen in triage. Temp 102.9.
Once we got back to a room, we explained everything to the doc and he agreed to do blood work. Yay! Something no one else has bothered to do. They did a CBC, and his white cell count was 16,000, somewhat elevated. They then did a c-reactive protein, which also came back elevated but as the doctor put it, "It should be about 2.0 and it's a 4.0 but I only really get excited when it's a 6 or 7."
After he was poked and prodded and catheterized and terrorized by those meanie nurses and doctor, a man came in and told us he was there to collect a few vitals before Tucker was brought upstairs.
"Upstairs?" I asked him. "Why does he need to go upstairs?"
Oops. He got the wrong information.
I almost pooped my pants.
We were finally able to leave after getting instruction from the doc. He recommended moving up the tonsillectomy to an earlier date so we see if that's going to solve the problem. He said the back pain Tucker's been having is likely secondary to the fever, meaning the fever is causing him to have chills and that's where he's feeling the tension.
The nurse in me came home last night and did some research and found all sorts of not-so-exciting things. High c-reactive protein tests and elevated blood counts could mean something as small as a general infection or something awful like lupus or something as terrible as lymphoma. Also listed under lymphoma; frequent fevers, back pain and general fatigue.
I shut the laptop and went to bed. I mean, come on, what does the Mayo Clinic know, anyway?
Tucker was up most of the night, shaking and sweating and fevering, but today is running around like a champ, pausing for ten minutes or so to rest on the couch.
We're waiting on a few more cultures today that will give us more answers, good or bad.
We left to go pick him up. He was lying on the couch at my mom and dad's, burning hot and saying that his back hurt. His fevers have been cyclic over the last year or so, but the back pain is still something new. At his three year well-child visit, he was complaining of back pain and all they did was check a urine. It was negative, of course.
I had had enough. I needed someone other than his primary doc to see him when he's sick for a second, I mean third, I mean fourth opinion. I had originally been satisfied with the diagnosis the ENT gave him, the periodic fever syndrome, but why is he having back pain? I needed an answer. We left the girls with my mom and dad and took Tucker and Milo down to Children's emergency room.
It only took us an hour and a half to get there because the interstate was closed. How convenient. And then our exit to Hiawatha wasn't accessible from the detour so we took another detour. Also convenient.
We finally arrived and Tucker was seen in triage. Temp 102.9.
Once we got back to a room, we explained everything to the doc and he agreed to do blood work. Yay! Something no one else has bothered to do. They did a CBC, and his white cell count was 16,000, somewhat elevated. They then did a c-reactive protein, which also came back elevated but as the doctor put it, "It should be about 2.0 and it's a 4.0 but I only really get excited when it's a 6 or 7."
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| Trying so hard to be brave. |
After he was poked and prodded and catheterized and terrorized by those meanie nurses and doctor, a man came in and told us he was there to collect a few vitals before Tucker was brought upstairs.
"Upstairs?" I asked him. "Why does he need to go upstairs?"
Oops. He got the wrong information.
I almost pooped my pants.
We were finally able to leave after getting instruction from the doc. He recommended moving up the tonsillectomy to an earlier date so we see if that's going to solve the problem. He said the back pain Tucker's been having is likely secondary to the fever, meaning the fever is causing him to have chills and that's where he's feeling the tension.
The nurse in me came home last night and did some research and found all sorts of not-so-exciting things. High c-reactive protein tests and elevated blood counts could mean something as small as a general infection or something awful like lupus or something as terrible as lymphoma. Also listed under lymphoma; frequent fevers, back pain and general fatigue.
I shut the laptop and went to bed. I mean, come on, what does the Mayo Clinic know, anyway?
Tucker was up most of the night, shaking and sweating and fevering, but today is running around like a champ, pausing for ten minutes or so to rest on the couch.
We're waiting on a few more cultures today that will give us more answers, good or bad.
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