Today I am grateful for a doctor who listened.
Back on November 4th I took Allie into the doctor because it was Friday and she had a fever and was also very tired. I didn't want go into the weekend with her having that. We saw the nurse practitioner. As soon as she walked in the door she said, "oh she has strep" She inspected her further and said she had large red splotchy tonsils and pointed out a rash to me that I hadn't noticed. I thought Allie was just flushed from the fever. The doctor put her on a medicine that she had given her before and we were on our way. Friday night Allie took her medicine and went to bed early. On a side note, Russ ended up taking Lily to the Urgent Care that night because she came home from school with pink eye. Two highly contagious diseases in one house is NOT fun to keep contained....just so you know!
Saturday came and Allie improved. Her fever and rash were gone. She still acted very tired and didn't want to eat, but for the most part she acted fine. Sunday morning arrived, Allie refused to eat breakfast but wanted water. She drank a small bit and immediately began throwing up. I started to clean her up and I noticed she felt warm. I banished Allie to the couch saying she must rest on it. By afternoon Allie's fever was back as was the rash. Except this time the rash was very noticeable and worse in my opinion.
8:30 Monday morning I called the doctors for another appointment. I described to the nurse what was going on and she insisted that I not come in. She would talk to the doctor about her worsening condition and call back with instructions on how to take of her. When I hadn't heard back from them at 2:30 I called in and demanded answers. The nurse blew some smoke about "how busy they were" which just made me more mad. Eventually she got around to asking how Allie was doing now. Allie had fell asleep at 11:00 and was still sleeping. She also hadn't ate anything again. I explained this{again} and she said she would get back to me. Ten minutes later he did get back to me saying Allie's medicine was being switched.
Monday night Allie took her medicine. Tuesday and Wednesday the fever and rash were gone, but Allie still wasn't eating nor drinking. She was sleeping much more than normal and she wasn't going to the bathroom. Thursday the rash showed up briefly and then was gone. I was getting nervous by this time. Friday night we went to McDonald's and I was FOR SURE Allie would eat since she was showing a bit more normalcy. Half way through her meal Allie layed down on the bench declaring she was cold and her tummy hurt. I turned and looked her and my mouth about hit the table I was in such shock. Allie was covered head to toe in another rash that was clearly an allergic reaction of some sort. I felt her head and she had a slight fever....again.
We waited out the weekend with the rash coming and going. Monday I called in I was on hold for over an hour before finally low and behold I got the SAME nurse as last time. I started crying when she said that all appointments were full. I said what should I do then. She reassured me that Allie would be fine as long as she was taking in some water. She did say that it sounded like mono and I agreed with her because I had already looked it up online and all the symptoms for mono were the symptoms Allie was having. I got an appointment for today and waited with the rash appearing faintly again. However, her energy level and appetite had seemed to perk up a little.
Today I went in and talked to our normal physician. Allie was acting quite normal today other than a very faint rash. Dr. H listened so patiently as I laid out the whole story before him. Which in itself was very complicated. He gave Allie a complete exam and then laid out what he thought had happened. From the swollen tonsils that Allie still had and the rash I described the PA had shown me he said she probably had had Scarlet Fever {strep with a rash}. Her tonsils were still quote swollen {a 2.5} and they were close to being a candidate for seeing a ETN. But he reassured me that they probably would go down in the next week or two. He then proceeded to say that Allie was allergic to the first antibiotic{suprax aka Cefixime aka cephalosporin antibiotic} and that it was an odd choice for the PA to give her since it doesn't really treat strep. He was very intrigued when I related that Lily was allergic to it as well. He declared that was a very ominous family history. Then we got to the heart of the situation. He was very concerned to here that we were still giving all the 2nd antibiotic because it was only 5 day dose. Our bottle had said a 10 day dose. He felt that the combination of so many antibiotics in her, her 2nd antibiotic going to long, and the combination of being allergic to the first one was leading to her body react against them causing the rash. He felt by taking her off the medicine the rash should go away. He was more concerned that Allie's body may have created a resistance to the zythromax. Zythromax is pretty much her only option right now for an antibiotic. He told me to make sure she doesn't get sick for a long time. Yeah, like that is going to happen! Before he left he did say to me that he was going to talk to not only the PA about the dosage problem but he was going to talk to the nurse as well about not letting me come in TWICE when I needed to. He declared that wasn't the way things should be handled.
All day today I have seen continual improvement of Allie. I'm so glad that I have a doctor who took the time to listen and get the heart of what was wrong. I shudder to think of what kind of predicament we would be in if we had continued to give Allie the medicine and she built up a resistance to it.
Oh and on a sidenote, Lily came home from school with fever. It never ends, I swear! At least I know she doesn't have strep since she doesn't have her tonsils anymore : )
