...actually, epstein-barr, the virus that causes mono. the girl has mono. i took her to the dr monday for a strep test; negative but wait for the over night results. tuesday she went to school. wednesday back to the dr and the overnight strep test was negative too so lets draw blood and test for mono. thursday/friday she went to school and today they called and said yes, it's mono. wow. no medication to take for it it just has to run its course. it is not like the mono i thought it would be. she is not sleeping all the time or weak or anything like that. her symptoms are a sore throat and an occasional headache. no fever. no coughing. and no gym for a few weeks because mono swells your glands and spleen and if she got hit in the spleen right now it would be ugly. like medical emergency ugly. holy hell.
this is the first time the girl has had blood taken since she was a baby, when it happened daily and then twice a week for the first 1-2 years. hers was not an uneventful birth and when they put your 6 week old in the hospital for failure to thrive it's not fun. she had/has hypercalcemia. this required constant blood work, prednisone for years, ultrasounds of her kidneys (she has calcium deposits), endocrinologist visits, etc. she was about 2 before we were out of the woods and now she only needs an ultrasound of her kidneys every other year to make sure there are no changes. when she was a baby/toddler it was horrible to get her blood work done. one time in the hospital they almost got to the point where they were going draw blood from her head because she was so tiny and they couldn't get a good vein. the hubs was....heroic is really the word to describe him. he took her to her weekly blood lettings, i couldn't handle it. when she'd have a big appt. at the hospital and they'd do blood work we'd both go and more than once the hubs had to hold her down. she's scream at the top of her lungs and flail around. it was awful, just awful.
wednesday when the dr said he needed to draw blood i saw the panic in her eyes. but she was soooo very brave. i held her hand, she looked at me and while she didn't flinch or make a noise, there were quiet tears.
6 comments:
Not how I pictured mono either.
My oldest daughter had the failure-to-thrive let's take lots of blood and conduct horrible tests on her little body thing, too.
Nothing makes you feel like Mom of the Year like a doctor giving you the failure to thrive diagnosis on your first child.
By your third, you're just surprised any of them have survived!
At first, after reading your title, I thgought you had adopted a new cat or dog and named it "Einstein" which I a very cool name. But..I see this is all very serious and and I felt for you(and your little girl) going through all that so early on in her life with the blood tests.
And, yes, your girl WAS very brave to get her blood drawn(I nearly want pass out myself when I have to have it done--I have learned to look the other way and NOT look at the needle or the blood))--hope she is on the mend soon, and maybe the silver lining is that you and her can hang out a little now during the day together.
draw blood from her head?!?!? HORROR FACTOR ELEVEN! i would scream holy hell too!!!! thank god it is easier now. YEESH!
I hope your girl feels better soon.
I could picture you guys doing the blood work. I had no idea she had a complicated medical history.
My boy had an immune deficiency in younger days. He had blood draws at least monthly (which he got very good at, lots of IVs, injections, etc.) He was very brave for a long time, and then one day during and IV for a CT scan, he hit the wall and had to be sedated to get stuck.
Sorry to blog in your comment area. This never happens, but it is an alcohol influenced comment.
Oh no! I hope she feels better soon. Mono is exhausting and feels like it takes forever to get back to 100%! Poor girl. That's rough.
I will say about blood draws, either you're a good stick or you're not. You gotta know which one you are. I think I am a good stick and can and have gotten blood just about anywhere. My last crazy one was an IV in the armpit. It was beautiful. This on a patient who has had an IO (in the bone) IV because the doctor couldn't get one in her neck or groin. But I get that some people aren't into it. I always just think, it's not my arm, so no biggie. Of course, when I get my blood drawn, you had better get it the first time because I have huge veins.
Oh this post really makes me emotional...when my son was born he was in the nursery for a couple days and I was a COMPLETE wreak! I couldn't stop crying, I was terrified, it was just horrible (for me) so I can't imagine what you guys must have been through...
Post a Comment