An Actual Diagnosis

I thought Alaethia’s fever had finally broken and gone for good, but then we woke up at 7am and she was back at 102.4°. Mom came over to watch the kiddos while I showered and then Aly and I left to the doctor’s office. I told the doctor about my concerns; how I thought she may have strep and that she developed this weird rash on her back. She said the rash was just dermatitis and there were no signs of a cold or Strep. I told her how the diarrhea and vomiting happened only that one time. She probably had the virus Rachelle had the first day, then she caught another virus since her immune system was already compromised. She said the only thing she could have would be a virus called Roseola. To summarize: it’s a virus that lasts anywhere from 3-7 days, but usually only 3 days. After the 3 days of having fevers of 103°, she’d develop a rash. It wouldn’t be itchy or painful, but it would mean that she’s at the last stages of the virus. The rash would show up in little spots or patches, some with a ring around them. She told me to keep doing what I was doing, only instead of alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours, to give her her usual dosage of Tylenol, then give her the Motrin 15 minutes later. Her fever’s actually subsided twice today!

I kept an eye on her body all day just watching out for the spots. I gave her her meds at 7 and 7:15pm and started getting worried when the fever wasn’t going down. Then, almost in front of my very eyes, the spots started showing up:

When her fever was still at 102 half an hour later I gave her a nice bath (while answering a survey about fruit…stupid telemarketers!). She felt cheerful and much cooler afterwards, thank goodness. She’s been doing pretty good and actually sleeping for longer than 10 minutes again, poor baby. I’m waiting up till 1am so I’m sure to give her her medicine.

Other than that, I did laundry and helped the boys clean up their room. It was a disaster. They let it get so bad that they just don’t even feel like tackling it anymore (kind of like when I’d let the dishes pile up, heh). I’d gone into their room and Eenan was sitting on the floor surrounded by toys. He looks a little sad, so I ask him what was wrong. He sadly waves his hands over the mess and says, “I can’t find Jaylen. I don’t know where he is.” My heart stops, even though I clearly saw him leaving with my dad-in-law. I wouldn’t put it past one of them to get lost in their pigsty of stuffed animals.

They kept fighting and whining, so I sat in their tiny red chair watching them until they’d done a little over half. If I hadn’t done that, they would have strangled each other. We moved some stuff around and every thing’s much more organized now. Too bad I didn’t get a picture of it in it’s clean state…it won’t last long.

The boys are both sleeping over at Mary’s tonight. They usually take turns but they both went today. Mario’s finally home. He’d actually been getting home early every day this whole week, so I cut him some slack and tried not to complain when he said he was staying out with Chris and Jorge. Tried being the key word…I’m clingy when I’m PMS’ing =\.

Okay, gonna start getting ready for bed so I can give Aly her meds in a bit. Goodnight!