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We arrived at the children’s hospital and of course, Jamie breaks the fever he had for 5 days straight, they still took us directly back as they could see Jamie was in pain, very sick and we told them we had been sent by our pediatrician who thinks it may be Kawasaki Disease,. The ER doctor came in shortly after we arrived in the room and examined him. I told her that his fever had just broke after 5 days of staying between 101-103, she shook her head at me in acknowledgment and then stated she would like to do an ultrasound to see if the lymph node was infected. A few hours later she returns and states that there was no infection seen but the lymph node is swollen for some reason so they would like to keep him over night to monitor him, my husband and I agree that we think it’s a good idea so that they would see his fevers go up...But then we thought maybe the worst was over and it would be a pointless stay.
In his hospital room they began a combo of clindamycin and another antibiotic that I can’t remember the name of through his IV.
Throughout the night I would feel Jamie and he would feel feverish to me, he would whine through the night in pain and I would call the nurse to come check in on him (we seen her maybe once every 2 hours when she would come in to take his temperature). At one point during the night I took his temperature and it said 102.8...I called for the nurse immediately...20 minutes later she strolls in and checks his temperature "It only says 100.4 and that’s not a fever..." I told her I promise you I have seen him feverish for 5 days and he had a fever...maybe it broke already? They had been rotating the Motrin and Tylenol every 3 hours so maybe it broke just as fast as it came up and she missed it?
This happened two more times...and I think the nurse thought I was a crazy obsessed mother...so finally I took a picture of the thermometer after I took his temperature, my last attempt to get this nurse to see...and this time she came in the room within 5 minutes...I showed her the picture of the thermometer screen "I took this 5 minutes ago, right before I hit the nurse call button for you..Look it says 102.1" She then rolls her eyes, making her irratation at me known and grabs the thermometer... It’s only registering 97.5... " I look at her and I said very sternly "I don’t want to sound hateful...but I don’t think you did that right...it wasn’t under his tongue or something- he has been sick for 5 days and hasn’t been that low...and even now feeling him there is no way he is less than 100!" Once again she burns her frustrated sigh out and shows me the thermometer is under his tongue...and it beeps...102.9!
"SEEE!!" I squealed. I was really starting to think I was becoming a crazy mom...maybe I was imagining the fevers!? But no, this time it showed for her to! She informs me that she will call the doctor and let him know the fever hit so when he rounded in the morning we could discuss it.
7am, Friday October 16th about 8 or 9 doctors came into my sons hospital room, they identify themselves as the "hospitalist" team and state that children that don’t have a diagnosis fall under them. They explain that they ran a few different tests and all came back negative and they believed it must be some type of bacterial infection since the antibiotics had helped a little. The blood in his eyes were no longer bloody, just red again and his lymph node swelling had gone down a lot! So they took that as signs that the antibiotics were doing something positive. They informed us that while he did show a few of the symptoms of Kawasaki and they understood why our pediatrician would want him examined for Kawasaki Disease, but to them he didn’t show prominent symptoms- but they would rule it out for good if the echocardiogram they had plans of doing that day came back negative...then we could go home. I also informed the doctors of my disappointment in the nurse for missing his fevers throughout the night because she didn’t check them that often...he said to me "Well, it’s really not relevant...as long as he is breaking the fevers, that’s all that matters!" Okay Great, I thought! That’s a good thing then, he is breaking them.
The echocardiogram was clean they did that afternoon and we were relieved to know our son was going to be fine in a few more days...they were sending Jamie home on adult doses of clindamycin and they said it would kick the bacterial infections butt in a day or two. They did tell us to make sure he didn’t develop the other signs of Kawasaki’s which were 1)peeling/cracked lips, strawberry tongue 2) peeling hands or feet 3) Irritability (and they made sure to tell us he would be so irritable we would be begging for our child to be back.
The symptoms he did show that mocked Kawasaki was the high fever for over 5 days, the swollen lymph node and the blood eyes. Only 3 of 6 and they wanted him to exhibit at least 5 before a diagnoses of Kawasaki’s could be made...but they made it very clear...it was not Kawasaki's. They also told us Kawasaki was very uncommon in children over the age of 5.
So we went home that afternoon. Carried Jamie in through the doors of our house as he still couldn’t walk, he was still weak...he still didn’t smile...nor had he ate in almost a week...and we were forcing him to drink so he didn’t become dehydrated again. My husband and I were exhausted after a week of his illness but still stayed by his side...because even though we wanted to believe the doctors that the medicine they sent us home on would work in a few days...my heart continued to tell me that it was something else...I was constantly telling my husband "Something isn’t right, this doesn’t make sense for a bacterial infection...for as much antibiotics he has taken it should have kicked it out already!" But my husband told me to trust the doctors. They knew what they were doing.