When Jaeda was sick (and we were nervous).

When Jaeda was sick (and we were nervous).

Not quite a month ago, we got a call from our local grocery store saying we had swiped our store card when we purchased some peaches…that were now recalled. Two weeks prior, we had purchased said organic peaches and had rinsed them, nothing fancy. (And of course, I was in a peach mood and ate 6 of the 8 peaches, leaving 1 for each kid.) They alerted us to symptoms to watch out for listeria and reminded us that this sickness can incubate for 60-70 days. Ugh. Thankfully, as I looked up the symptoms, it seemed mostly that you get sick and ride the sickness. Maybe a little amoxicillin to confront the bacteria, but you easily survive.

And then the sub title screamed, Listeria in Pregnancy, and I realized then that things could be much different for an unborn baby. Different as in kill or severely deform. Even if the mother never exhibits symptoms, the baby could be born healthy and days later get sick and die. Thanks, WedMD. As if any pregnant woman needs another thing to worry about. But I prayed fervently for two days and begged the Lord to take the worry from me. Worry only, only ever makes things worse. Then I got up and chose to live.

Last week Thursday (just days away from being in the clear, time-wise) Jaeda got this really high fever. Unexplained. No sick friends. Germ-y church nursery enough days prior to feel too far away. She had had one diarrhea diaper that morning with no complaints of pain in any way. We played with friends all morning until she came and sat on my lap…til nap time. The 102.2 fever stuck with her for over 12 hours (we prefer to let the body do its thing and not mask symptoms with Tylenol…unless medically necessitated). I finally called our ER that night (I was only concerned about listeria and its consequences, not so much about a fever) who patched me through to our dear doctor, willing to talk with us far past office hours. He became concerned with the height and length of her fever and asked to call in a prescription…for amoxicillin. We really debated. Wait it out? Just give it to her without having diagnosed her? Antibiotics are not something you mess around with, just giving them willy nilly. They kill everything in your gut! But the risk of listeria outweighed the risk of the antibiotics, so we picked it up.

We put her in bed as soon as she’d had her first dose (as well as a dose of Tylenol to help her sleep), but it wasn’t long before she was moaning. Again and again and again. I finally kicked James out of our bed (sorry, babe!) and had her sleep next to me. I reached my hand over every 30 minutes to see how her fever was doing. By 2am, it had finally become manageable, and by 4am, it was gone. She woke up a new kid. We spent an hour of Friday morning outside, and by the end of that, she was definitely wiped out. But she woke up from nap time refreshed and we didn’t observe any more sick-y symptoms.

So. Was it just a short little bug that needed to work its way out? Or did the amoxicillin do its job? We didn’t know!

Our doc had asked us to bring a stool sample (easier than blood or SPINAL FLUID sample *shiver*) in Friday, but after James and I talked more, we decided we didn’t want to pay the lab fee just for peace of mind. It would either tell us we were right to give her the meds or that we freaked out unnecessarily. But it wouldn’t have changed our actions (since this lab takes approximately a week). So I called Friday afternoon and said we’d just skip that and hope this was it…unless for some reason, they thought we should know. Apparently they did, because I quickly received a call back asking us to come in anyway or at least go into the county health department, since they could likely run the labs cheaper. They also suggested calling the peach company, because if this was listeria, they should/would pay for any expenses we incurred to treat it.

So I called the county’s communicable disease department who said we’d made the right choice, because even if it wasn’t listeria, it could be salmonella or something with similar symptoms that would need antibiotics. But she asked me to wait while she called down to the state to see if any other cases had been reported from this most recent recall. She called back with the good news that no cases of listeria had been confirmed, but with the bad news that several cases were currently in the lab testing process. I decided not to follow up and see how those cases turned out, because by Saturday she was in great spirits (and thrilled that she got to continue taking her sugary meds). The state also said it was too late to test Jaeda because stool samples often give false positives and as she’d already taken some of the antibiotic, it would speak more loudly than any listeria potentially in her, giving her a potentially false negative.

So. We still don’t know exactly if we made the right choice. But we have our daughter…and a good probiotic for later this week when her meds are done. Isn’t that all any parent can do? Research, get medical advice, talk to the experts, talk to the Expert: PRAY. I still get an anxious feeling every once in a while regarding our little unborn one, but I certainly have no power in this circumstance. Thankful to entrust these lives into the care of the very Great Physician Himself. I’m reminded of Isaiah 40:11 in times like these, “He gently leads those who have young.” We rest in the assurance that He loves our children more than we do and will lead us to the appropriate response.

fell asleep waiting for me to get her pjs.
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woke up enough to brush her teeth. but not enough to actually stand.
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staring blankly into nothingness.20140814_202420

fell back asleep waiting for Dad to come back with her meds.20140814_204346

One perk for Jaeda now, however: whenever she doesn’t want to do something, she feigns a light cough and says, “Tan’t. I sick.”

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