I believe that we should take life as it comes. Which is why my blog is named so. It gives us immense courage and bravery to deal with any situation thrown at us.
One such incident shattered me when it all begun. But at the end, it only made me strong as an individual.
On 23rd March 2019, around 12:30AM my 14 month old son got up crying and was not consolable. Since he was teething with his first molar, I gave him 2ml of Tylenol so that the pain subsides and he could sleep. That helped and he slept well for the rest of the night.
Day 1: When I got up in the morning along with my son, I noticed that his body temperature was little high. I monitored his temperature during the day and thought that he might have slight fever because of the teething. Every single tooth that he has ever got was always accompanied by a slight fever. And this time, there were 2 first molar’s that were bursting to come out of his jaws. By around 1:30PM, his temperature rose to 101. I gave him 3.75ml of tylenol (the preferred dose by doctors for his weight). But his body temperature did not seem to go down. At 7:30PM the temperature was still 101. So I gave him 3.75ml of Tylenol again. He slept at his regular time. At night, I got up and sensed his feet and it was very hot. I checked the temperature immediately and it was 101.9. I woke up my husband and we called the nurseline. The nurse told me that since his fever has been for more than 24 hours, get him to the “Emergency Room”. These 2 words quite scare me. It was 12:30AM.
Doctors took his auxiliary temperature and it was 103.2. Too many thoughts crossed my mind when I heard the temperature. His temperature never got so high and he was so playful just 2 days back. I started guessing what could have happened. His daycare reported no incident of viral infection. There was one case of Pneumonia reported though. Would my son have caught that? Can first molar teething cause such high fevers? Is it FLU since the winter was still not over? Or something else? Among all these thoughts, the doctor decided to give him a high dose of Tylenol (10 ml) and Ibuprofen (10 ml) at the same time and told us that high dose once is fine. We then waited for 30 mins and then his temperature was rechecked. It was 102.9. Still high!! I started worrying again. I told them that there was a case of Pneumonia reported in his daycare. They did a FLU test. It came out NEGATIVE. But since he had some symptoms that resembles FLU, they thought they will treat it as FLU. They gave medicines like Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Tamiflu (antiviral medicine for FLU) and Zofran ODT for him and discharged us. It was 4:00AM in the morning when we were back home.
Day 2: On 24th March, because of the overdose of Tylenol and Ibuprofen that the doctors gave him last night, he now also had diarrhea. Whatever little he ate made its way out immediately. The only agenda now was to get his temperature down and keep him as hydrated as we could. He hardly ate anything. My husband got his prescribed medicines and I started giving him the doses prescribed in the prescription.
In the evening, there was a bigger SHOCK waiting for us. My son started having sudden jerks as if he got a sudden SHOCK. He lost his balance and would fall, cry and play again. He got these jerks every 15-20 mins. This scared both of us and we took him immediately to the “Emergency Room” again. It was 8:30PM.
The doctors drew his blood sample and conducted some tests. They came back saying that his C Reactive Proteins count was 138 (normal is 9). Way too high! So they decided to X-ray his chest to check for pneumonia. The result came negative. They told that the next step was to do a lumbar puncture. This is done to draw CSF, a fluid that runs around the brain and back along the spinal cord. They wanted to check if it had any viral or bacterial infection. This procedure involves poking the back of his body with an injection and reaching the right spot where they can extract the CSF. Side effects: Headache. This sounded dreadful and I told my husband that we go home. I could not see my child go through all these pain and strongly felt that he is all fine and does not have all those horrible things they are saying.
My husband insisted that we do the test as we would be clear at least at the end that he is fine. I reluctantly agreed. They started the procedure. He was given anesthesia at the back. 2 nurses held my child in position and did not allow him to move a muscle. The doctor poked and poked and poked to hit the right spot. It poked my heart to see my child like that, go through all those things. Finally the doctor started extracting the fluid but blood was mixed in it. They took the fluid to test. Each minute of waiting made me more anxious. Don’t know what to expect.
The doctor came back telling that his WBC count was 12000. Very high than usual. This made him lean towards the decision that he MIGHT have Meningitis. This broke my heart. My son was fit and fine until 2 days back and now he might have this? Meningitis is related to brain and I was so scared that is this going to cause any damage to the being of my son. Tears rolled down as quickly as they could. Deep down my heart, I never agreed to what the doctor was saying.
Meanwhile, the doctor informed us they would need to culture the fluid to test for viral or bacterial infection and they would be shifting us to the Masonic Child Care in downtown. We waited for the ambulance to take us there. I could not accept that all this was happening to my son. I just wished that this is a bad dream and I could wake up happy and hug my child. But the truth is bitter. All I could do is face the situation with utmost bravery.
We reached the Masonic child care and settled in the room. It was 5:00AM of 25th March 2019. My child finally got to sleep a bit after 2 days of tiredness and nothing in his stomach. Late in the morning, the doctors came in and started explaining what they think. The doctor wrote: RBC -> 400, WBC -> 12000. Usually, the WBC should be 10 times more. It is 30 times more in his case. My worry now became intense. But somehow I gathered myself to listen to what the doctor was saying.
As they say – “A second can change your entire life”, the next moment changed the entire situation. The doctor, for some reason came over to the nurse to see the report sent from the Emergency Room that he was admitted to last night. As the nurse scrolled down the report, the doctor exclaimed – “Woah vo vo.. Hold on! I thought the RBC count was 400!! It’s 4 million!!”. My ears stood up instantly as I heard that count. Having studied a bit of biology during my schooling, I assured myself way before the doctor said that my son is absolutely fine! The nurse informed that the Emergency Room updated the results in the morning. The doctor then declared that it is definitely not Meningitis. He informed us to wait for the culture result. We waited until 6:00PM in the evening and all results were negative. They concluded that it was just viral infection and would go away in a few days. As for the jerks that he had, it was due to reaction to Tamiflu (FLU medicine).
I was annoyed that the wrong lab results put us through all these rough times especially for the baby. But my happiness that he is all fine, superseded every other emotion I had. He was discharged in 2 hours and we were happy to go back to “Home Sweet Home!”
Waiting for Daddy to get his car 😊💖
The post cannot end without thanking the two people who were the support system in the entire process for me and my husband. Sonali Bijjargi (My cousin who is also a pediatrician) and Vinod Karagi (My husband’s cousin who is a surgeon). Without their opinions, we couldn’t have made any decisions. Thank you so much both of you for being there any time we messaged or called you provided that they are 13.5 hours ahead in the time zone.