I'm Gonna Be Gray By Age 35

Good Lord, what a week so far.

I stayed home with Anna yesterday because of her fever. She napped a lot (4 naps with over 6 hours of total nap sleep) but ate very little compared to her usual amount lately. During the day I had noticed that her soft spot was kind of more pronounced than usual- "bulging" out, even. I called our pedi's office just to see if that was something I should be concerned about. I was told somewhat dismissively "maybe I was just noticing it more than usual because she was sick" and that maybe she was "over-hydrated" (WTF- I had already told the nurse that she wasn't drinking as much as usual AND that she had had 6 diarrhea diapers during the day- there's NO WAY she could have been "over-hydrated" and I didn't even know that it was possible to be "over-hydrated." I ended up googling bulging fontanelle (why do I always consult Dr. Google even though I KNOW I'm going to get the worst-case-scenario??) and meningitis came up. Her other characteristics- fever, diarrhea, stiff neck (probably more related to her torticollis but aggravated by not feeling well) plus the bulging fontanelle were all listed as symptoms of meningitis. It was too late to call back by then, but we had been told to bring her in if she had the fever for 3 days anyway, so we waited for the morning to see how she was doing. I really didn't think it was something super serious, or I would have brought her to the ER. I thought we would be okay at least until morning.

Anna didn't have a fever this morning, so we brought her to daycare. Our daycare provider emailed about 10 am and said she had a fever and asked if she could give her generic Tylenol. Since we had been told to bring Anna in to be checked over if she had the fever for 3 days, my husband made an appointment to bring her in as soon as we could. (I had our first school field trip today, so it would have been really difficult to be gone from work myself. My husband has a lot more flexibility at his job than I do.)

My mommy instinct was warranted, because our pedi told my husband she had never seen a soft spot protruding that much on an infant as old as Anna before, and ordered a CT scan and bloodwork to try and figure out what was going on. Although Anna was hungry, they wouldn't let my husband feed her in case the results from the bloodwork came back bacterial and she would need a spinal tap. Good lord. She had only napped for 15 minutes all day on top of all that. I called over an hour after the appointment because I had not heard anything from him yet (I figured he would have left by then), and this is what I heard (my baby screaming in the background) "they are going to do a CT scan to rule anything out- oh, I have to go the doctor just walked in." Click. I had to wait over an hour to find out anything else. Way to make a momma want to drop everything and run to her car to get to her baby as fast as possible! BUT, as a teacher, it's not like I can leave my class high and dry with no adult to watch 16 5-year-olds. Plus, my husband was there, what was I going to do that he was not doing? So I stayed and waited not-so-patiently for more news.

The short version is that the bloodwork came back showing a viral infection, so she most definitely does not have bacterial meningitis (the bad, bad kind). And no spinal tap was needed, thank goodness. She finally got to drink her bottle and was in relatively better spirits.

She may have a mild case of viral meningitis, but neither the neurologist nor our pediatrician thinks that is the kind of viral infection she has (they don't know what kind though). She officially has a "begnin enlargement of the subarachnoid space"- basically extra fluid in the tissue layer of her head (NOT her brain and not in the layer that has veins, both of which would be bad) that is pushing her soft spot up. 16% of infants apparently have this, more commonly boys. They will be monitoring her head circumference closely as she grows and that's about it. It shouldn't cause any issues or interfere with her development.

Anna also happens to have her next cardiologist appointment tomorrow to check on her VSD and ASD heart murmurs. The plan is to get a EKG to see if they have gotten smaller. I anticipate good news, because the last couple of times her heart has been listened to, our pedi said it sounds like it has gotten smaller.

Life is certainly never dull around here! For a relatively "healthy" child, she sure has seen a lot of doctors! Besides her pediatrician she has seen a cardiologist for her heart murmur, a gastroenterologist for her GERD, a physical therapist for her torticollis, a chiropractor, and now a neurologist. I'm 31 and have never had a EKG or a CT scan. Anna's less than 7 months old and she's had both. I'm really ready for this to calm down a little around here and have a normal couple of weeks. I'm not sure I know what normal is anymore!