When we got home she laid down on the couch and moaned. Within an hour her temp shot up to 104! I called Rafael at work and he rushed home so we could take Ava to the walk in clinic. By the time we got there, the Tylenol had kicked in and her temp was back to normal. She was back to normal too. They took a urine sample and blood sample. Everything came back normal. The doc said she probably just had a tummy virus and it would pass. When we got home and her temp shot back up again. More Tylenol.
The rest of that day and Thursday were completely normal. I was confident that whatever it was, was gone. Friday morning came. When she woke up I walked in to her room. She said "Good morning" in her cheery little voice and as soon as she sat up she lost it. She was doubled over and couldn't even walk. I carried her to the couch. Her temp was rising quick. I called Rafael and told him he needed to come home so we could take her to the ER.
I called my Mom to tell her and then I started bawling. Ava stopped crying and looked at me and said "Why are you crying?" I said "Mommy is just worried about you honey, and I don't want you to hurt." She said "Don't worry Mommy, it's just a little tummy wake." (she calls ache wake). She melts my heart!!!!
When Raf got home we hurried and got in the car. Ava rode on my lap in the front seat wrapped in her blanket. When we got to the ER Raf dropped me off at the entrance. As soon as I walked in the door and saw the 3 people behind the check-in desk I started bawling again. I couldn't even talk to tell them what was wrong. I just handed them my insurance card. They got Ava back in a room right away. When Raf came in with Reese, a lady came in to get more information about us, insurance etc. She told me to go be with Ava and let Daddy give her the info. The nurses were taking her temp and blood pressure. I went over to Ava's bed side. I put my hand on her knee and she said, "Will you please not touch me right now?" Then she pointed to the chair in the room and said "Will you please go sit down." Ok then!!! I guess my independent 3 year old had this emergency room thing handled!!
We were at the ER from 8pm until about 1:30pm! They did all kinds of tests on Ava. They took xrays, blood, urine, they did an ultrasound on her tummy. They gave her IV fluids because of how long she had been sick. They were worried she might be dehydrated. That was SOOOO hard. I held her so tight and she tensed up and cried when the needle went in, but she was pretty quick to relax. She was such a good girl. She just laid there in the bed for all 5 of those hours. I think she was pretty exhausted from fighting this illness.
During her ultrasound they found a lot of enlarged lymph nodes in her tummy, along with fluid pockets. They couldn't see her appendix, but they were pretty quick to rule that out because of her white blood cell count. They diagnosed her illness as Mesenteric Lymphadenitis. It is a condition that causes your lymph nodes to become inflamed. They said it usually happened as a result of an intestinal infection. They said it closely mimics symptoms of appendicitis, which is what we thought she had originally. They said it would go away on its own and could take several days or weeks to completely go away. How crazy! It amazes me all the things that can go wrong with our bodies!
The good news is that it is pretty rare, and the doc said she has never seen a kid go trough it twice. Whew!
Ava had her follow-up the following Monday. She checked out great. She has now figured out that if she complains that her tummy hurts, it gets her out of eating her lunch or dinner. Sneeky kid!
What an awful experience!
Reese got sick on Sunday night with what seemed to be what Ava had, tummy ache and high fever. Poor Reese was up all night Sunday night and Tuesday night grunting and crying. I took Reese to the walk in clinic Wednesday and they said she was too little to get the lymph node thing, and was likely just suffering from whatever intestinal infection Ava had that past week.
Well, now it's Friday and all is well! No tummy aches at our house! Whew!! What a rough few weeks!!
My sick baby. This picture breaks my heart!
