When Tia came home with a fever and a cough the other night, we didn’t worry much. We’ve been parents for awhile now so we’ve seen our share of fevers and coughs. And Tia, of all three kids, is the easiest patient to deal with. She rarely complains, she doesn’t let an illness keep her down and she almost always bounces back pretty quickly.
But this fever was different. First of all, her face was bright red. She looked like a tiny little beet sprouting white blonde hair. In addition to being bright red, her face was also very puffy. She was like a fluffy, doughy beet sprouting white blonde hair. When she woke up yesterday, her face was still puffy and hot. I assumed that she had gotten a little too much sun in Florida, but my mom assured me that she hadn’t had a sunburn. So then I feared she was having an allergic reaction – but what was she reacting to?
When she came into our room last night complaining of chest pain, she emanated heat. She was just shy of radioactive. So I did what any self-respecting mother would do…I consulted the internets – particularly Facebook – to determine whether or not I should be concerned. Thank God for modern technology yes? My cyber friends convinced me that I needed to call the doctor and despite the fact that Tia woke up with a very low grade fever and no more red face, I called it in.
She has Scarlett Fever…with Strep Throat. I suspected as much when I changed her this morning and she was covered in a sand paper-like rash. Sloan had the same type of rash when he had Scarlett Fever two years ago (almost to the day).
Tia had all the signs of Scarlett Fever and Strep…except the most obvious – a sore throat. I must have asked her 100 times if her throat hurt and she always told me no. But, she did say several times yesterday that her drink was “hurting her neck.” At one point she asked me why I gave her a spicy drink. I’m guessing this means her throat hurt while she swallowed. Crazy kid.
When the doctor looked at her throat, he winced and told me her throat was bright red and extremely raw. Way to go, Mom, for missing that one! Yeesh.
So we are now on antibiotics and on the look out for more rashes, fevers and raw throats as Scarlett Fever is apparently pretty contagious. So much for our long streak of no sickness. It was an impressive run that had to come to an end at some point…
I am so sorry to hear that Kelli, that stinks! I was thinking H1N1 at first with the difficulty breathing. Hope nobody else gets it, or should I say you and Landon as Sloan already had it and we all know that dads NEVER get sick!!!
The whole strep throat thing is weird. Jac got it last fall and I rushed him to the emergency room when he said it hurt his neck to breath. I was thinking that he had some horrible pnumonia and was about to turn blue any second. Strep throat. I like the fact that they say neck instead of throat, that is what throws me off.
So sorry to hear that! Simple kids’ illnesses as they say are not so simple, especially for parents. Get well soon, sweet Tia! And don’t involve anybody else in this “game”.