Sick

We had a fun break for Christmas, but we've also had more time and more testing at the hospital than we've had in a very long time.  Abigail started with what was first diagnosed as strep throat the week before Christmas; several days later we were confused by the fact that her fever still wasn't gone--in fact was still relatively high--and she was complaining of head and body aches (which are red flags for Dengue).  We were praying that she didn't have it, and took her in to the ER.  She was diagnosed with a virus and we were told that we'd have to come back in if the fever didn't go down in three days.  It went down in two, making this a six day fever (one of the longest my kids had had to date).

Jesse started up with it two days later, the day my parents arrived to celebrate Christmas.  We didn't worry too much with him because we figured that it must be the same virus.  And it even seemed to go away by the end of day three.  But Christmas morning he woke up with a headache and a moderate fever, and the day after that his fever was close to 104 (which we realized just as we finished supper).  At that point we were two hours away at the beach, and we made a spur of the minute decision to drive back (at night, over the mountains, which let me tell you is no easy drive) to take him to the ER in Santiago.  That left my parents at the beach with no phone service, no car, and very little Spanish.  Talk about stressful.  Jesse, in the ER, was ruled out for Dengue for the time being (it's never off the table until the fever is gone here), but they couldn't really explain the fever.  We worked from the assumption it was the virus and would wrap up soon.  And we went back to the beach to join the family.

Two days later, Jesse was up to 104 again and we drove for 15 minutes until we got cell reception to call his doctor.  She said he needed to go back to the hospital for more blood tests (again, here, Dengue is always a possibility, and platelet levels need to be monitored) so we left the next morning (a day early), this time with all of the family, and since it was a Sunday that meant the ER once again.  The tests revealed nothing (except to show that the fever was dehydrating Jesse).  His doctor wanted to do a bunch of tests to make sure we weren't missing any infections or anything, so he was in the hospital for at least 12 hours total by the time all was said and done.  And eventually (after ten days of fever), it just sort of cleared up, and we got Jesse to drink and drink before the last urine test so he could pass as hydrated again and be done.

This has been a beast of a virus.  It was quite a time.  I have never had a kid with a fever for over a week, and it's really stressful.  God was protecting Jesse and Abigail, we're really thankful.  Yesterday, Micah got it.  He's on day two and it's pretty mild so far.  Pray for us.  With the other two it picked up on day three or four.  We're praying for him to be done in a few days.