Katie got sick during our vacation in Santa Fe. It started on Sunday with a mild cough. I didn’t think anything of it as Katie and I had traveled 700 miles the day before and were both exhausted… plus the climate change between Austin and Santa Fe was drastic. The next two days she was fine and went to day camp..
Wednesday, she started losing her appetite. She went to camp and when I picked her up she had red cheeks. Again, I didn’t think much of it since both my kids tend to get red cheeks when they play hard. I took them swimming. While we were swimming, she kept asking to take a nap. In the pool. That should have clued me in that something was wrong for sure. We came home and I bathed her and that’s when I noticed her cheeks were rash-red. She didn’t eat, had 100 temp, got 1.5t Ibuprofen and went to bed at 6:45pm. This is when it all started:
9:15pm uncontrollable crying, headache, tummy ache, halucinations all night, 99.8 temp, 1.5t Tylenol
Thursday: red, cracked lips, red cheeks, itchy back & arms, what looks like broken capillaries on neck (almost hicky like), tummy ache
6:00am, 100.4 temp, 1.5t Ibuprofen
11:45am, 99.9 temp, 1.5t Ibuprofen
2:45pm, 99.3 temp, 1.5t Tylenol
5:45pm, 100.7 temp, 1.5t Ibuprofen
6:45pm, 1.5t Tylenol
Friday: neck ache, tummy ache, headache, feet & hands hurt, still red cracked lips, red cheeks, red/purple dots on neck that don’t seem rash-like… now complaining of armpits hurting
5:10am 101.8 temp, 1.5t Ibuprofen
5:30am 1.5t Tylenol
I wouldn’t normally give her this much in the way of meds for the fever… we tend to let the fever run its course. But she is complaining of pain. So I’m trying to help her get comfortable. Her appetite came back, which was one good thing. The first thing that came to mind for me was Fifths Disease. Since that’s a virus and there’s really anything that can be done, I just kept her comfortable with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. But her symptoms started getting worse and I became concerned about Kawasaki’s Disease. I know doctors (and husbands) hate when we consult Dr. Google, but I also know the medical care in Santa Fe is not top notch and I wasn’t sure if I should take her in or not. And of course, we were headed into a holiday weekend.
I looked-up Doctors in Santa Fe that take Aetna and my mom called her friends who have had to take grandchildren to medical facilities during their stays to ask for opinions. I e-mailed our most awesome Pediatrician as well. His staff was positively fabulous.
You can’t really see in my phone’s camera shots just how miserable she looked… especially since she sees a camera and automatically thinks she needs to smile. But her cheeks looked as if someone had slapped them both.
The broken capillary look on her neck I could have explained away had she been hacking up her lungs or vomitting, but she only had a mild cough… and she ended up getting pin-dot rash all over her stomach.
My mom and I ended up taking her to the Urgent Care. Waiting at the ER, we were told, would have been positively nightmarish and no Doctor would see her since she wasn’t an existing patient. Of course they didn’t open until 10am and we were there at 9:30am. A line started forming outside, and it was drizzling, which made it cold. But we didn’t want to get stuck being 15th in line if several more sicklies showed up, so we stood outside for 10 minutes. Once we were let in (5 minutes late), we signed in and the nurse told us it would be awhile as the doctor had called and said she was running late. Gee. Great. “If you need to be seen quickly, please go across the street to the hospital ER.” No one left. Luckily the doctor wasn’t too terribly late… just 30 minutes.
This place was not so bad looking on the outside, but definitely rundown on the inside. And the patient rooms… omg. We are so spoiled here in the great Austin, TX! They took her temperature (of course this was the first time she had no fever) and vitals. They decided to do a throat culture to test for strep. The male nurse was so proud of himself because he tricked her and snuck the long q-tips down her throat. She was PISSED OFF at that! I had to practically beg them to feel her lymphnodes. What kind of place is this? She had a slightly swollen lymphnode under her left armpit. They said her belly felt good and sounded good. They would not do any bloodwork. They sent us away saying it was just a virus and the busted capillaries were probably from excessive crying, but I could call if she got worse. We took Katie for ice cream… which again, of course, we had to wait 30 minutes for it to open.
I ended up taking Katie back to the Urgent Care later in the day when her rash got worse. It was so stupid. I called and asked if I should just give her Benadryl. I spoke directly to the doctor. She said to come on in so she could give the proper dose. I thought that meant she was going to actually GIVE Katie the dose. No, we went all the way out there so she could write me a prescription for an over-the-counter drug. I’m not an idiot. I could’ve done that myself at the grocery store closest to my parent’s house. Oh well.
Just to wrap things up, Katie ended up getting better. No telling what it was… maybe it was, in fact, Fifths. She miraculously got better the day before we were to drive home. I am thankful I didn’t have to drive a sick child 700 miles. That would have been miserable.
