I'm waiting for a call back from the on-call pediatrician this morning. Paige had some minor leg pain yesterday and I just had her rest it all evening. The leg pain then woke her up in the middle of the night and she came to my room limping. I put her back in bed and didn't see her again until this morning. She was still limping and couldn't bear much weight on the leg at all. I wasn't blogging when almost the exact same thing happened with Kaeli back in the fall-except Kaeli's started on Saturday night and I had to call the doc on Sunday morning. As a side note, I wonder if a child's body comes preprogrammed to get strange ailments on days that the Dr's office is closed. Actually, the Dr will see patients today, but I have to drive to Wilmington (almost an hour away). So, back when Kaeli had this problem we ended up spending an entire day and night in the hospital. I REALLY hope it doesn't come that this time. We just don't have time for it and tomorrow is Easter. The good news is that Paige's pain doesn't seem as bad as Kaeli's pain. Paige has a bigger range of movement in her hip joint. Also, I think Kaeli had to stay overnight because her WBC count was high--making them very nervous because it could have been a joint infection. Hopefully, with Paige they'll take a look at her, pat us on the back, and tell us to give her Motrin until the pain is gone. Kaeli's diagnosis ended up being "transient synovitis" which is just a sudden, unexplained case of arthritis in a joint that resolves by itself after a few days. It's completely harmless as long as the more serious conditions are ruled out first. Since Paige appears otherwise healthy and has no fever I feel pretty sure she has the same thing. It's just that it'll likely take most of today get that confirmation.
Yesterday I spent a good part of the day feeling worried about Ryan. I took him to the Dr yesterday morning because of a rash that he started getting last Sunday. The Dr said his rash is called "petechiae". Petechiae can be caused by trauma or low platelet count. Since it was pretty obvious trauma could be ruled out we had to assume it was probably a low platelet count. I had to take Ryan to get STAT blood tests to see what was going on. It turned out that his platelets are NOT low and his CBC was entirely normal. So, the Dr said it's good news and bad news. Good news that it doesn't appear to be anything serious. But, bad news because he has no way to explain their presence on Ryan. The Dr just said to call back in a week if the rash is not gone. Then Ryan adds another interesting twist to things at bedtime. He was in bed and started crying. When I went up there he said "room spin" and seemed pretty scared. He felt like his room was spinning. The rest of the night was uneventful and he seems perfectly fine.
I'm sure they are both fine, but it's always a bit unnerving going through the "ruling out" process.
The interesting thing is that I'm getting some good lessons in which seemingly minor complaints need to be looked at immediately. When Kaeli had her hip episode I reluctantly called the on-call Dr thinking he'd tell me to give her Motrin and call him on Monday. Instead he said to immediately take her to the ER. There I found that severe hip pain can be the first sign of some serious illnesses (but can also be no reason for concern). Before yesterday I thought ALL rashes were pretty mundane and could be "watched". Come to find out, I should have had Ryan's rash evaluated immediately because it could be the first sign of pretty serious illnesses (or it could be nothing). Then there was the time that Paige had this big red circle on her arm that was really hot to the touch. She was at the Dr for some other reason and I said "oh, could you look at this and tell me if I should be doing anything for it?". Turns out she had cellulitis-an infection on her skin. If I had let it go much longer it could have become serious by getting into her blood stream. He started her on antibiotics and she was all better a couple of days later. It's somewhat comical because I tend to get all worried over the silly stuff that is almost never cause for concern. Then symptoms that I shrug my shoulders at are the ones that are potentially most serious. Of course, we've been VERY fortunate that all the serious stuff can be ruled out pretty quickly. Hopefully, we'll always keep that streak going.
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