Saturday, November 15, 2008

Update from Wednesday's being sick blog.

So I blogged about Tehya being sick since Halloween for over a week, see "Wednesday".

Basically we went to the doc (they are not so bright as always), looked at her ears and mouth said looks great, said she's prob got a minor cold because her tongue was a little white. I wasn't buying it, I didn't think she had a cold, no symptoms.I never trust the doctors (yeah that's me...looking into seeing a Chiro instead!). Nothing he said made any sense considering her symptoms and every time I go there I come home knowing the same as before I went in except I'm more confused. Plus the fact that the doctors are so uneducated on breastfeeding, and other subjects, ugh. Okay, rant done, moving on.

So regardless of the docs conclusion, I knew it wasn't right so I got to googling. I was thinking sore throat or maybe strep. In these days she had a white sore on her tongue, and I called the doc and there ONLY advise was "coat it with an antacid", never gave a guess what it might be and didn't request to look at it. Then later while googling I come across thrush (considering the amount she'd been nursing it was a possibility). I wasn't convinced yet but I kept that in mind.

The following days during teeth brushing time I noticed her gums looked swollen and dark red, and then they gushed blood as I attempted brushing them. I mean, I barely touched her teeth and the blood poured out. So I googled some more, and saw this Herpetic Gingivostomatitis caused by a type of herpes virus called herpes simplex virus type 1 or HSV1. Symptoms including, sore throat, fever, irritability, loss of appetite, not wanting to eat or drink, red swollen bleeding gums. She had ALL these symptoms. I saw that and said, that IS what it is! I called her dentist and described the symptoms, went in the next morning, and he said she has herpes simplex virus INSIDE her mouth. Confirmed. Mystery solved!

Thank you pediatrician for knowing NOTHING, thanks for looking in her mouth and saying "looks great", thanks for telling me she had a cold when she didn't. Thanks.

So Tehya has HSV1. She probably got it from me. :( It is past through cold sores and I coincidentally had one the week before. Now she'll suffer from it forever, just like cold sores, it keeps coming back. Maybe once every 6 months or once every 6 years, but it will always come back. It's basically like a cold sore but she got the mouth sores in her mouth, although it can spread to the outside. It is VERY painful. The dentist (I love her dentist, thank God, even if we travel an hour for this particular one), he said it's like chicken pox, the INITIAL sickness (fever, etc) will not return, she'll only get sick once, although the sores can come back. It is a virus so it cannot be treated with antibiotics, just keep her happy and comfortable as possible. She is pretty lucky so far, he said some kids get DOZENS of sores at a time and they can cause their teeth to break as well.

Yeah I know, this is getting annoyingly long so that's it, Tehya almost completely recovered from it this time around. Phew.

3 comments:

Anne-Marie said...

That is really scary and disappointing that your pediatrician let you down. He (or she) is supposed to be the one person you can entrust to help you make informed decisions about your child's health. Good for you for trusting your instincts and finding out the information yourself! Hopefully Tehya will be on the mend now in no time.

Anne-Marie
PS Thank you for the link to my blog, organizationquest. I am honored.

Moonstruck Mommy said...

Oh my goodness, give her big hugs! What an idiot that doctor was! I don't like my pediatrician either, I am looking for a new one right now!

mrs_o said...

always go with your mommy intuition!!