My 7 year old daughter has had high fever (102-104) since monday and wiht tylenol/motrin it will go down to around 100. She is on a z-pack with today being her last dose. On top of the fever she has whooping cough and has had ongoing break out of hives. We went to a local ER and her chest x-ray was clear and urine was clean. No one checked her blood pressure or did any type of blood work. They diagnosed her with bronchitis and sent us home with an inhaler--which has not helped anything. Another boy in her class has hives with a low grade fever. So I'm assuming that there is a viral infection going around. However, I'm starting to stress about her high temps and constant cough. We may try another ER so I'm asking for advice so that I can be a little more proactive.Any suggestions on what tests to ask for or even thoughts to what may be going on? Thank you
I should add that we have seen our doctor 3 times this week and he was the one who sent us to the ER. She is a confirmed case of whooping cough.
After a week she is better and has been released from the county to go back to school. On top of the whooping cough she had a viral infection Facts about whooping cough: by the time they test for it germs have already been spread. the test is a nose swab that takes 2-3 days. Antibiotic is 5 days, the majority of the time the cough does NOT have a whooping sound.just a persisitant heavy cough that may last for a few seconds/minutes and only happen 1 an hour. Very rarely is this diagnosised.
my oldest son had whooping cough 2 years ago. It takes months for them to completley shake it. I would say get her into a pediatric pulmonologist asap. They know what to do for this better then er docs.
In order for them to confirm whooping cough , there has to be bloodwork that is sent to a lab for a week or two to check for Whooping cough. Did they do that?
Also a fever is not a bad thing. It is the body's way of working out the virus. Tylenol can deplete your glutathione levels in your body nd you don't want that because it is there to help detox.
Hope she is better soon.
L.
Hi V.. There's so many things that might be going on with your daughter. I think you need to take her to your Pediatrician/Doctor tomorrow (or even call tonight) instead of taking her to the ER. The ER is trained to only respond to the key symptoms in the best way possible. But a local Pediatrician/Doctor will have her finger on the pulse of which viruses and illnesses are going around in your community/schools and can look at your daughter in a more "complete" way.
5 days of a fever definitely warrants a call or trip to the Pediatrician. But remember that the 5-day dose of Zithromax is not complete until 10 days after you start. Plus, the Zithromax will have NO impact on any virus your daughter is struggling to fight -- anitbiotics only help bacterial issues.
Finally, I thought I would give you some great information from Dr. Sears about fevers. Hopefully this will help you feel a little bit better, before you can take her to your Pediatrician or Doctor.
-- Remember, fevers are your body's natural response to infection, and not necessarily a sign that something serious is taking place.
-- Low-grade fevers are generally not serious, are easily treated, and can wait until the morning to be evaluated by your doctor.
-- Fevers of 101 to 103 (38.4 to 39.5 Celcius) are also generally not serious and can wait until morning to be evaluated.
-- High fevers of 104 (40 Celcius) or higher that quickly come down to 100 or 101 (37.8 to 38.3 Celcius) with treatment (Tylenol/Advil/etc.) are also generally not serious and can generally wait until morning.
Good luck. I hope everyone gets some sleep tonight.
EDIT: Whoa. I totally missed the reference to Whooping Cough. Call your Pediatrician/Doctor now.
Wait a minute -- She has an actual diagnosis of Whooping Cough...As in Pertussis?
Just keep bringing her in when YOU feel worried. Such an illness can so quickly go really wrong. The chest x-rays are good and I am assuming they are checking her blood gas (that little clip they put on your finger).
You mention ERs...Has she been in to see her regular pediatrician during this illness? ERs are best suited to deal with critical trauma...Not an illness that is building, growing, changing.
We had a similar event 4 years ago. (High fever for a week coughing, etc). The bronchitis evolved into pneumonia. We saw our pediatrician 4 times in a one week period as well as taken her to the ER in Allen. Luckily we listened to our intuition and took our daughter to the emergency room at Children's Medical in Dallas. Best decision we ever made. It saved her from losing a lung and possibly saved her life. The illness was an MRSA and very dangerous. Trust your own instincts over any pediatrician.
I would take your daughter to one of the Childrens Hospitals in the area. See if maybe they can figure out what is going on. The other suggestion you could try is to call the school and see if they could give any suggestion as to what the other student has. They can't give out the childs name but maybe the school nurse could tell you what the child was diagnosed with. Good luck.
okay, when you say "whooping cough", do you mean she has a cough or that she has been diagnosed with pertussis? if she has been diagnosed with pertussis, i would be ABSOLUTELY beating doors down NOW to get some help for her. all that said, i live very close to you(denton) and my entire house has had a horrid virus that "ends" with a bad, nearly constant, hacking cough - but all of our chests are clear. ask for an rx cough syrup with codeine or hydrocodone, additionally, if it's viral, an antibiotic isn't gonna help. my 4yo is nearly over it, i am done after 3 weeks, and my 1yo is having her worst day yet.... hope she is better soon.
Whooping cough... is the same as Pertussis.
Was your child vaccinated for it?
Take her back to an ER.
That is a long time, with a high fever.
And, Pertusis, is epidemic in some states... and can be very dangerous. Some infants have died from it.
Take her back... you NEED to get a diagnosis... and she what this is.... or what is going around in her class....
Next, Tylenol or Motrin does NOT 'cure' a fever... or infection... it only 'reduces' the temperature. Temporarily. If the infection/illness is still there... the fever will, recur.
Really take her back to an ER.... be proactive... and tell them also, that something similar is going around in her class....
A "whooping" type cough... is not good....
have you called her pediatrician? Does your ER treat children frequently? Our pediatrician gave us a list of ERs to go to with our daughter if we needed it, because most of the ones nearest us dont treat children regularly.
if you go back to the hospital take her to cook childrens
I'm a little confused - in one part you say she was diagnosed with bronchitis and you are assuming there is a virus going around, which by the way an antibiotic wouldn't even help - you would have to wait it out and watch to make sure it didn't worsen into pneumonia, and in the end you said she is a confirmed case of whooping cough. These are 2 VERY different things. Whoever diagnosed her, did they give you signs to watch for in which to come back? Has she worsened? Or is the illness just still running its course? I would be suspect that no bloodwork has been done at this point at either the pediatrician or ER - that is odd for as sick as she sounds. I will say, if you haven't been actually diagnosed with whooping cough, a virus that is going around that my daughter was confirmed having through bloodwork and other kids in her class have had too is the Croup, which also produces a disturbing cough and a fever. Before going anywhere, I would put a call into the pediatrician and speak with the nurse and make sure you know for sure what the diagnosis is, what signs you need to look for to bring her back in, and then decide whether to wait or to bring her back. If you trust you pediatrician take her there - if you don't take her to either Children's Hospital Dallas or Cook's in Ft Worth, whichever is closer. I hope your daughter gets better soon, for both of your sakes. I think sometimes a sick child is harder on us than them because we want to make them well so badly, and sometimes we just have to wait until it is out of their system. :) You are doing the totally right thing covering all your bases though - never ever doubt that!
Yes, this is going around. We had it in early October - symptoms are all the same. The cough took forever to go away, but other than that, we were over it in about a week. The z-pack will continue to work even after the last dose. I would give it until Monday before you go back to the doctor, unless she gets worse over the weekend.
Hang in there.
