Not Again!

I mentioned in the previous post that Faith was sick. We initially thought it was a bacterial infection and was treating the fever with antibiotics. Little did I know it was the dreaded Kawasaki disease.

Faith's fever was going on the seventh day despite the antibiotics, her lips were severely chapped and her eyes were turning red. A call to her pediatrician alerted me to the possibility of kawasaki so I hit the internet and checked. Sure enough, she had the symptoms. A friend's son had gone through the same disease so I knew it was serious. We brought Faith to the hospital the next day and after taking a look at Faith, she was admitted for kawasaki.

It's a scary disease and not much is known about it except for the symptoms and how it is treated. Research on the web says that it is an illness that involves the skin, mouth and lymph nodes and typically affects children who are under the age of 5. The cause is unknown but if the symptoms are recognized early, the child can fully recover within a few days. Left untreated, it can lead to serious complications such as vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels which affects the coronary arteries) and other complications. For details about the illness, you may google it (kawasaki disease) or visit http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/heart/kawasaki.html.

The only way to treat it is to administer a mega dose of gamma globulin (purified antibodies) which is run through an IV for at least 12 straight hours. I count myself very lucky that Faith did not have a very bad case. She had the fever, red eyes, cracked lips but that was pretty much it. I know that some children suffer rashes and severe muscle pain and skin peeling and I am very grateful that Faith was spared that. In fact, our hospital stay was very short (3 days). The symptoms disappeared as soon as the gamma globulin was administered. When they finished, Faith was running around the room with me frantically trying to follow her with the IV tubes and all. Check out these pictures we took of Faith clowning around in our hospital room Friday afternoon before we knew we were being discharged that night.

With her hand still wrapped in a diaper due to the heplock.

Playing cute with the camera

Unlike her kuya, this one really knows how to frown

Thought this was really cute

You see how much of a ham she is? You wouldn't think she was just barely recovering from a serious illness or that we spent the last three nights barely sleeping at night. As corny as this sounds, it makes me think of rainbows after a long spell of rain. (ooooh, that made me wince!)