In Which I Seem to Get Fooled Again
Baby Guppy had a cold. Then he got an ear infection and was treated with amoxicillin. Then a week went by and he spiked a fever. I assumed he’d had a recurrence of the ear infection. But his ears were clear, as was his chest, but his white blood cell count was high, suggesting a bacterial infection. While we waited for the results of various cultures, he was treated with another antibiotic. He kept being feverish and waking at night, but was happy during the day and when he was fever free. Yesterday, the doc said if he was still feverish today to bring him in. He was at midnight, so we gave him ibuprofen. And that seemed to end the fever.
And then, I spotted some spots. A rash.
D’oh.
Roseola. A virus. High fevers for 3 days or so, then fever breaks, a rash erupts, then goes away, the end. That’s what it probably was.
Still no explanation for the high white count, but the rest seems to be explained.
Drake had this once, and I feel like I should have recognized it again as the non-serious virus it was. The problem (ha! as if there’s only one) is that there is never one cause. Is the fever viral? Bacterial? Is the night waking due to teeth? The answers are rarely clear and definite, though the roseola rash provides a quick retro-diagnosis. I feel like I’m on an episode of House where they never figure out what’s wrong.