Around the Clinic in 2 days

Zoe has been sick for 6 weeks now. She’s congested, has a deep cough, and within the past 3 days her eyes have gotten puffy, very bloodshot, and sore. During the course of this illness we have made 3 trips to the pediatrician (not everything is a job for the transplant team) and she has been given 2 rounds of antibiotics and an inhaler for the cough. She didn’t get any better, she just kept getting worse so I put in a call to the Clinic doctors last week on Thursday. I got a call back on Monday and Colleen said Infectious Disease wanted to see her the next day. Thus beginning our endless trip around the Cleveland Clinic.

Yesterday we arrive at the clinic at noon to see ID. Dr. Danzinger looked her over and based on her symptoms and lack of a fever, vomiting, diarrhea, she didn’t think there was anything bacterial or viral going on. She was thinking allergies which Zoe has never had. So she sends us over to an Allergist. The Allergist gets her history and takes a look at her and says he thinks she has something viral going. He also had his doubts about a medication allergy we thought she had. When Zoe was 3 she broke out in hives while taking amoxicillin. In the grand scheme of antibiotics virtually nothing trumps penicillin so for her to have an allergy to it severely limits what can be done when she gets sick.  The hives took nearly 3 months to completely clear up and because of this the Allergist said he didn’t think the medication caused the hives. Apparently 3 month hives are NOT a normal allergic reaction so he when he ran his allergy tests he also ran 2 special tests for penicillin allergy. All test came back negative. The test results seemed to add weight to his feeling that she wasn’t having an allergy attack. The condition of her eyes did have him concerned so from there he sent us to the Opthomologist. The Opthomologist, 3 actually, looked at her and said she looked like she had a really bad case of pink eye but felt that her symptoms were being caused by a virus of some sort. They took cultures of the mucus drainage in her eyes and prescribed 2 eye drops, an antibiotic/steroid combo and an antibiotic drop. He also said he wanted to evaluate her again the following day since we would be back to see Dr. Boyle. After the eye doctor we hit the lab for some blood work and were headed home at 6pm. So in our 6 hours spent at the clinic we learned 3 things: Zoe is allergic to nothing (including a medication we thought she was allergic to), people who are allergic to dust mites are also allergic to cockroaches, and Zoe does not like having someone rub her eyeball with a q-tip.  

Today we returned at 1:30 for Zoe’s echo, ekg, visit with Dr. Boyle (just a regular check-up) and her follow-up with the eye doctor. Her echo and ekg were good and Dr. Boyle said her heart sounded good. He thought her ears looked a little infected and decided to treat her for a sinus infection & ear infection on top of the eye infection. He prescribed 2 different nasal sprays for the stuffy nose and amoxicillin for the infection. The eye doctor said he saw improvement in her eyes but he wants to see her again on Monday to determine if one of the eye drops can be stopped. We were on our way home by 5 this time. I’m crossing my fingers that she starts to feel better soon. Currently she’s camped out on the couch because she can’t seem to stop coughing when she lays down in bed. It’s 10:52pm. sigh

Dr. Boyle mentioned this camp for kids with medical diagnoses.  He and Jen (the nurse practitioner) visited the camp for a weekend a couple weeks ago. He said it was pretty awesome. There’s crafts, a lake, horse back riding, etc… He also said they are planning a week during the summer just for kids with heart conditions. He’s not sure what week, but will let us know when he does. She’s pretty excited about it. He said we should plan on a family weekend during that week because the whole family will love this camp.

I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!