I'm a future nursing student starting a BSN program this Fall (yeah)!
My daughter (21 months) has been running fever now (intermittant, as I think it goes down while she's sleeping) for 12 days. Highest it's been though is 100.7 rectal. Had her urine checked b/c she recently had a kidney infection but it was clear (this was on Sat.). I normally would maybe assume she just runs a higher temp since it's on the cusp of normal, but she normally runs a much lower temperature, in fact it's quite low when she's asleep or just woken up. It's been as low as 96.6 when I've taken it during the night (again, rectal). Her normal daytime temp runs around 98.9 (rectal). And with the UTI she ran around the same temps (highest 100.4) for the previous 5 days before it spiked and I took her to the ER at 105. So, as of late, 100.2-100.4 means something is going on, not that that can change and be "normal" for a kid, but it was about a month ago that she had the kidney infection and the 100.2-100.4 did mean her body was fighting something. She has no other symptoms but last night she slept for 16 hours straight and then today, after only being awake for 2.5 hours took a nap for another 2 hours. Both times I had to go in and wake her up. When she's awake she acts completely normal, eating, drinking, and playing fine. Oh...I have also noticed maybe 3 small bruises on her trunk in the last week. This is the first time I have noticed bruises on her trunk. They have now all faded and there are no new ones. She may be bruising more easily but I can't be for sure. She takes flovent 44 twice a day (for RAD) and Keflex once a day until we get her renal US and VCUG results back (tests were done on Mon.). Other history is a vascular ring repair (double aortic arch, a congenital heart defect) in Dec. (she is not at a higher risk for endocarditis than the gen. population, however). Her CBC a month ago showed eleveated WBCs 22,000 and an elevated CRP so I assume that since her WBCs weren't like "leukemia" high then that they wouldn't be now, so am I right to not be worried about that....
I just took her temp again and it was 100.9 so it seems to be going up just a bit.
I'm a future nursing student starting a BSN program this Fall (yeah)!
My daughter (21 months) has been running fever now (intermittant, as I think it goes down while she's sleeping) for 12 days. Highest it's been though is 100.7 rectal. Had her urine checked b/c she recently had a kidney infection but it was clear (this was on Sat.). I normally would maybe assume she just runs a higher temp since it's on the cusp of normal, but she normally runs a much lower temperature, in fact it's quite low when she's asleep or just woken up. It's been as low as 96.6 when I've taken it during the night (again, rectal). Her normal daytime temp runs around 98.9 (rectal). And with the UTI she ran around the same temps (highest 100.4) for the previous 5 days before it spiked and I took her to the ER at 105. So, as of late, 100.2-100.4 means something is going on, not that that can change and be "normal" for a kid, but it was about a month ago that she had the kidney infection and the 100.2-100.4 did mean her body was fighting something. She has no other symptoms but last night she slept for 16 hours straight and then today, after only being awake for 2.5 hours took a nap for another 2 hours. Both times I had to go in and wake her up. When she's awake she acts completely normal, eating, drinking, and playing fine. Oh...I have also noticed maybe 3 small bruises on her trunk in the last week. This is the first time I have noticed bruises on her trunk. They have now all faded and there are no new ones. She may be bruising more easily but I can't be for sure. She takes flovent 44 twice a day (for RAD) and Keflex once a day until we get her renal US and VCUG results back (tests were done on Mon.). Other history is a vascular ring repair (double aortic arch, a congenital heart defect) in Dec. (she is not at a higher risk for endocarditis than the gen. population, however). Her CBC a month ago showed eleveated WBCs 22,000 and an elevated CRP so I assume that since her WBCs weren't like "leukemia" high then that they wouldn't be now, so am I right to not be worried about that....
I just took her temp again and it was 100.9 so it seems to be going up just a bit.
Any ideas???
Any help would be much appreciated!
Carrie and Madeleine (21 months)
I feel your frustration. My daughter got monthly HIGH fevers that would last for about 5 days every single month for a YEAR. The fevers would get up very high with her highest 104.7 that caused febrile seizures. The doctors ran so many tests and always assumed it was "just a virus". FINALLY a new young pediatrician joined the practice and we saw him. He immediately said something wasn't right and sent us to an infectious disease specialist. She was finally diagnosed with PFAPA. Most people have never heard of it. I posted about it in this forum about a month ago.
Your daughters symptoms don't sound completely like PFAPA, but I just wanted you to be persistent that they take you seriously and address your concerns. If you can, see a different doctor in the practice and keep seeing others. There were times that I had my daughter at the office every single day. I spent a ton of money in co-pays by doing that, but I didn't care.
I wish you luck in finding an answer.
Btw....many times my daughter would have a fever of over 103 and she would act FINE.
This is getting maddening. It's gone up this week. 101 to 101.5 everyday. Anyone know if this COULD be a normal temp. I checked in the middle of the night this last week and it was 95.6. Talk about a wide range. So far blood work has been normal and she had a normal echo on Tuesday. Temps were running btwn 100.4 and 100.8 before this week though. So it's gone up almost a degree this week. No other signs or symptoms as usual. All temps are rectal btw. Infectious disease isn't concerned but will want to see her if they continue. Also, they define fever at a higer temp. Anyone know what that temp. is?
Thanks,
Carrie
Will your insurance pay for dna testing if it's being done to check for PFAPA, Familial Mediterranean fever, Cyclic neutropenia, Hyper-IgD syndrome, Epstein-Barr virus, etc. A lot of these disorders are found through dna testing. That's how they diagnosed my daughter with PFAPA.
Also, ask your doctor about giving her a dose of Prednisone to see if that gets rid of the fever. In many periodic fevers, prednisone will decrease the fever within a matter of a few hours.
Just some thoughts to ponder and ask your pediatrician about. Print this page out and take it to the Infectious disease specialist. It's one of the many the printouts that my daughters ID specialist gave me.
Just wanted to say thanks for the links and advice. I'm going to see ID hopefully next week. Just seems so crazy for this to have gone on for so long. I'm starting to think she's just a hot kid!?! With no other signs or symptoms it's hard to know what to think. Half the time I'm worried she has cancer or something horrible, and the other half I think it must just be normal for her.
We went to see ID this week and doc seems to think it can be normal for her. It is supposedly within the range of normal. Another possibility is chronic inflamation in her lungs due to reactive airway disease. So we're going to try putting her back on Flovent (we only went off a few weeks ago though). I have been hearing little wheezes here and there after she's been running around so I think that's probably a good idea anyway. Good news is I don't have to take her temp anymore!!!
Well now her fevers are the least of my worries. On July 4th she aspirated a piece of apple into her right broncus. Same thing happened less than a year ago with a piece of chicken. She's now had 2 emergency bronchoscopys in 10 months. Her heart defect was the culprit in the first aspiration and now it appears (from her barium swallow) that she has some scar tissue that has reformed her heart defect, a double aortic arch, (reforming the ring encircling her esophagus and trachea). We will be getting a cardiac MRI soon and then most likely have surgery again asap. Poor thing is back on a puree diet and my husband and I are again terrified of the next occurance (she aspirated a goldfish cracker just 2 weeks after the chicken, before the defect was diagnosed, the hemlich(sp?) manuver got that out).
(sorry for spelling errors, I'm too tired to spell check)
NicInNC, CNA
241 Posts
I feel your frustration. My daughter got monthly HIGH fevers that would last for about 5 days every single month for a YEAR. The fevers would get up very high with her highest 104.7 that caused febrile seizures. The doctors ran so many tests and always assumed it was "just a virus". FINALLY a new young pediatrician joined the practice and we saw him. He immediately said something wasn't right and sent us to an infectious disease specialist. She was finally diagnosed with PFAPA. Most people have never heard of it. I posted about it in this forum about a month ago.
Your daughters symptoms don't sound completely like PFAPA, but I just wanted you to be persistent that they take you seriously and address your concerns. If you can, see a different doctor in the practice and keep seeing others. There were times that I had my daughter at the office every single day. I spent a ton of money in co-pays by doing that, but I didn't care.
I wish you luck in finding an answer.
Btw....many times my daughter would have a fever of over 103 and she would act FINE.