Feeling MUCH Better!

Last Sunday morning when we went in to get Abigail up, she felt very warm. We took her temperature, but she didn't have a fever. But you know when you just know something is wrong with your child???....we just knew. That night, she had a high fever as well as when we got her up the next morning. We called the doctor and took her in Monday evening.

Her ears looked fine, throat looked fine....they couldn't find anything other than a fever. The doctors were guessing a virus, possibly Roseola, which is a virus that starts with a high fever and then a rash develops. BUT because of her heart condition and recent heart surgery, they wanted to see her back on Wednesday if her fever continued.

Abigail wasn't really acting terribly sick...no runny nose or cough. Just a high fever, fussier than normal and not eating. Tuesday night, her fever climbed over 104. We were obviously concerned so we called her doctor. We spoke to the on-call doctor and she told us to bring her in first thing the next morning. Again, her ears and throat looked fine. They wanted to rule out a urinary tract infection so they put in a catheter and took a urine sample. The UTI test came back negative and they still couldn't find a source of the fever.

The doctors and Abigail's cardiologist were concerned that she had Endocarditis, which is an infection of the heart tissue and/or valve. This is obviously very serious and made us all very nervous. They sent us downstairs to the hospital to have a series of blood tests done: Complete Blood Count and blood culture. The CBC came back quick (everything looked good other than she is still anemic because of the surgery), but the blood culture takes 5 days to get the full results, with 95% of the results coming back after 48 hours. They watch for any kind of growth, which is indicative of a virus.

Thursday, Abigail woke up without a fever. We were breathing a huge sign of relief. Now we just had to wait for the test results. Saturday, the doctor called us and said that everything looks good. Phew!

Apparently the possibility of Endocarditis is something we will always have to worry about because of Abigail's heart condition. We will always have to be extra cautious about her getting sick as well as while she is sick. There are many situations that will require Abigail to be placed on an antibiotic short term to prevent an infection (going to the dentist, large wounds...). Thankfully, we have an awesome team of doctors and they are helping us to take excellent care of our sweet baby girl. Like every parent, we will always worry about our little girl. For now, we are very grateful that Abigail is healthy (and happy!) and her test results came back great:-)

All better now! On to the pool!!! More on that to come:-)