In my last post I was lamenting feeling down and wanting to just soak up the good moment we were living in....well apparently the down feeling was me just having that good old mom intuition. Monday at noon I got a phone call from David's school- he was off and had a low grade fever 99.9 and just didnt look good. The nurse wasnt sure if it was seizure related or not, but when I offered to come and peek at david the response was a YES, so I drove to his school.
needless to say, David looked horrible- he wasnt speaking, and immediately his bottom lip came out as I entered the nurses office, he crawled on my lap and whimpered...I tried to get him to talk or tell me what was going on, but he said almost nothing. Fearing a seizure was coming, I decided to take him home. The entire ride home he looked HORRENDOUS...I wasnt sure if he was having a seizure or not the whole way home, but he just kept looking worse and worse.
When we got to the house he did a very odd breathing thing, and could not respond or get himself out of the car. I tried to pick him up to carry him inside, but his body was just stiff. Finally after a few moments I was able to carry him in and he asked for me to sit on the couch with him. I covered him with a blanket and lay with him. I had called my mom after hearing from the school, mostly because I was very anxious and wanted to chat with her as I drove to school. Thankfully she called back as we got in the house and was able to come and see David and me.
As we lay on the couch David was just stranger and stranger acting and looking. His body looked tortured. His eyes said so much, but not enough for me to know what was wrong. Was he sick? Was he having multiple seizures? Did he have a sore throat? there was no way to know, and he was unable to tell me.
After my mom arrived we decided to give him advil because his fever seemed to be going up. After more than 45 minutes, the advil had done nothing and David was laying on the couch looing like he was sleeping, but really awake the entire time. His eyes were so heavy, but he could not sleep.
My mom left to go home with a promise that I would keep her posted. Around 4:00 I touched David again and his fever was scary high- my guess, because my thermometer was broken was likely that he had a fever of 103 or higher. After giving him more advil, and with only an hour left before the pediatrician closed, I called and got David and appointment. I carried him to the car, and then into the doctor's office- he seemed to have absolutely no energy at all.
The doctor checked David out completely and found nothing. With a promise to go to the hospital for bloodwork if David wasnt better soon, and the knowledge that our doctor was on call if he was needed, we left the doctor's office knowing little more than we had arrived with. The only positive was that we were not dealing with an ear infection or strep throat....the cause of the fever and fatigue remained a mystery- and the biggest mystery by far was David's inability to speak.
Time ticked by slowly when suddenly at 5:30 David picked up a book, flipped through the pages and giggled. I was shocked. We were in the car but suddenly he had a twinkle in his eye and his language had returned. Now this was strange. I was very thankful, but even more curious. I have never heard of a virus or infection that causes these symptoms.
David remained healthy and happy all night long. He returned to school the next day, and seemed to be fantastic. The only thing that changed between noon and 5:30 was that the ADD medication David was taking, Concerta, was out of his system. Concerta can cause or be related to high fevers. Concerta can cause severe listlessness.
Concerta is a medication that will never, ever enter my sons body again. Thankfully this was a short lived intensely scary event. Sadly it is a reminder that David reacts oddly to medications at times.
No comments:
Post a Comment