Thank God for Friends Who Pray...

Our Grace had a VERY rough weekend. What began as a nasty cough one week ago Monday had turned into one scary cough by Friday afternoon. Her teachers called me at work saying she had a low grade fever and was "not herself". When I arrived at her school 40 minutes later she was lethargic, had a 101 degree fever and was not speaking. I rushed her home to give her Tylenol and get her comfortable while I called the doctor. They were out to lunch, oh my goodness...

So I waited on pins and needles for them to get back. Meanwhile the symptoms continued to advance. She was now complaining of pain in her ribs and arm. Finally by this time, they had returned from lunch. Once I explained her symptoms the nurse told us to immediately bring her to the Emergency Room. That is, the one that's a forty minute drive away and the one that you bring people to who are really sick. I was scared. I drove legally but quite quickly straight there.

Once we arrived they got her right in. Amazing really 'cuz, how often does that happen?! Did I mention she was still crying out in awful pain? And still burning with a fever, despite the Tylenol?! The doctor ordered a chest x-ray and determined she had pneumonia. After about 1.5 hours we were on our way home with a prescription, relieved. Little did we know, it...was...not...over.

When we were at the ER we noticed a collar-shaped redness around her neck and down her torso. The doctor attributed this to the pneumonia and the vascular upset that she was experiencing with the fever, coughing and crying. So we went along with that. Until 2 a.m. She awoke crying again, still in pain, itching wildly and was red from head-to-toe looking like she had spent two hours too many on the beach with no sunscreen on. Recalling the discharge paper which said that pneumonia is often accompanied by a rash that looks like MEASLES I told myself, "Well, this is one serious manifestation of that side effect!" To help try and soothe her I rubbed her down with powder. That didn't work. She was still beside herself digging and scratching. I then rubbed her down with lotion. That didn't work. Now it was nearly 5 a.m. and she was hysterical, burning with fever and had made scratches all over herself.

She needed help, and quick! I called her pediatrician who wanted her to come in immediately. On the way I had an AH-HA moment while thinking of those discharge papers (measles like rash) and remembering the doctors words 10 days ago at her five year check up after she received her MMR vaccine. "If she is going to have a reaction to any vaccine at all it'll be this one." No! Could it be?! Once we arrived I told the doctor about her shots. She was certain that not only did our Miss Grace have DOUBLE pneumonia (we weren't told THAT at the ER-they said it was only on the left side where her pain is), but...she was having an extreme reaction to the MMR vaccine.

My. Poor. Baby. I've never seen any of my children such as mess, it was awful. After leaving there (with yet another medication to give her) we went home praying that she would get some relief from the fever, the pain in her side and arm, the itching and the weakness that was now making her listless.

Amazingly after just 24 hours on ALL of those medications and LOTS of prayers from the good people at our church, she was showing major signs of improvement. Sunday morning she went back for more blood work and we received the good news that they were where they should be. Praise God!

Today, Tuesday, she returned to school. Her teacher reported that she did well considering all she'd been through. We are SO grateful. It was a scary three days. Mostly because of how quickly her condition declined. I will NEVER take a nasty cough for granted again. And I am SO glad that it'll be many years before she needs an MMR shot again.


Grateful and Humbled,
~Kate-Lyn~