AJ is Sick

We have been very lucky with Ayden Jane. She has been sick only 2? times before. They were pretty standard day of fever, yucky nose and better. One time required and antibiotic, but jsut because it hung around so long. Not this time.

Ayden Jane has been miserable. She was a bit congested after our trip, and then by Wed. she started running fever. Yuck. Friday night it pushed the 104 mark and she was working really hard to breath until the medicine brought it back down. Saturday night was similar, but not quite as bad. By Sunday night the fever broke. She woke this morning with no fever and I thought I would wait until Tue. to see if she was going to clear up. Plan changed when by 11 the fever was coming back (now working on 6 days of fever), she started a pitiful cough that was obviously NOT going to clear anything. We are now on an antibiotic and hopefully the road to recovery.

Lessons learned? Ayden Jane gets sick like a typical kid. That doesn't seem like saying much, but it is actually a huge relief. Some kids with PWS don't fight back against illness well and by the time the fever or aches and pains of being sick show, they are already down the road to really sick. I have heard stories of parents taking their kid in with a mild fever and 'acting a bit off' as the only symptoms and they discover the beginnings of pneumonia or double ear infections raging... So, as miserable as a week of being sick has been, I will take it a blessing that she was sick just like my others get sick.

Now, the not so normal things. She takes FOREVER to respond to fever reducers. It was close to an hour before the meds would begin to cool her off. It was no more than 20 min. for my others. I guess there is something to the idea that PWS can cause them to metabolize medication a bit more slowly. She also cools from the feet up. If you think that sounds crazy you should feel it! The night of her 104 temp. I gave her meds and kept checking to see if she was cooling down. I first found that her feet were cool. A bit later, her legs were also cool, all the while the top half of her was still like fire to the touch. Her belly and back came next followed by her head then her arms. Weird huh? If there had been a way to take her bottom half temp and top half temp, the bottom would have been normal and the top still well over 100.

I will get to more on the sibling study once she is no longer attached to me like velcro and I get things cleaned up around here!