April Timeline for Courtnie

This month has been especially hard for Courtnie and her health.  I'm blogging this timeline for reference:

4/10/13 Wednesday - Courtnie came home from school and was very quiet and lethargic.  Completely not normal for my baby girl with dancing feet who ALWAYS something to say or a question to ask!  I took her temperature and sure enough she had a fever.

4/11/13 Thursday - She stayed home from school today with a fever.  By the end of today I could smell her "sick breath" and she mentioned in passing that her throat was hurting.  I went ahead and called the doctor and made an appointment for the next morning.

4/12/13 Friday - She tested positive for strep and started Amoxicillin.  This is Courtnie's FIRST time to ever have strep and since she hasn't been to the doctor for anything other than yearly checkups in the last 6 years, we all thought this was a good choice.

4/14/13 Sunday - Called the doctor Sunday afternoon because there were NO changes and they wanted to give it one more day for the antibiotics to kick in and start working.  Our doctor gave us her personal cell phone number to call if we needed ANYTHING.  I tucked it away for safe-keeping but didn't really think I would need her cell so readily available.

4/15/13 Monday - Courtnie still had a fever, sore throat, coughing, not sleeping or eating.  They called in a new prescription, Zithromax.  They believe she may have a virus on top of her strep and that is the root cause of the slow healing.

4/17/13 Wednesday - Finally a day fever free!

4/18/13 Thursday - Still a bit tired, but Courtnie returned to school :)

4/19/13 Friday - Woke my baby up only for her to come running to me crying - her ear was hurting, her throat was hurting, her tummy was hurting, and she was tired.  Called the doctor, came in, and had an "oh my gosh" ear infection, but lungs were clear.  We had just finished the Z-pack this morning so we started our third antibiotic, Omnicef.  Diagnosed her with allergies and began a nose spray and Zyrtec along with Benadryl at night. Again, this is the FIRST time she has ever suffered from allergies but I could see the connection with all her symptoms.  She has currently lost 5 lbs.

4/20/13 Saturday - Courtnie has a fever again and now has a rash covering her belly.  It isn't raised and doesn't itch but I went ahead and called the doctor anyway.  As a mom, I can diagnose many things but rashes are not my area of expertise!  And with everything else going on, I just felt I needed to call her.  She believes that the virus they originally thought she may have had on top of the strep was surfacing, which is a good sign.  Told me to call her back if anything new came about.

4/21/13 Sunday - Although fever free today, her rash has now spread all over her body.  It still isn't raised and doesn't itch but it is everywhere - torso, back, arms, legs, hands, face.  Called the doctor and we texted back and forth with pictures.  They wanted her to stop all meds and come in ready to have blood drawn first thing tomorrow morning and both doctors would be there to look her over.

4/22/13 Monday - Courtnie still has her ear infection even after 4 days on her third antibiotic, she's still coughing like a smoker, and her temperature is back up to low-grade.  They don't believe the rash is from an allergic reaction to the antibiotics but a virus raising.  They drew blood for mono and full CBC.  They said she could go back to school but she begged me not to send her saying she was tired (again, this is not like her at all).  I opted to keep her home again and she is back in bed all day.  She has now lost 6 lbs.

4/23/13 Tuesday - Courtnie returns to school, no fever and her cough sounds better but her ear still hurts.  CBC and CRP tests came back today, both normal, and they sent the monospot test off for further testing.

4/24/13 Wednesday - School again today!  She's still raspy and sounds like something is caught in her throat and she says her ear hurts worse today than yesterday.  But fever free.

4/25/13 Thursday - Monospot came back positive and showed signs that not only has she had this round of mono for awhile already but it appears as if she has had mono once before.  The only concern at this time is her platelet count; it was 87 and should be 130,000.  Yes, those numbers are correct!  We will go back in for another blood draw in two weeks.

5/22/13 Wednesday - All blood work is normal.  All praise to our God!!