Posted 5/25/2014 4:16 PM (GMT 0)
My daughter has been really, inexplicably, sick lately. She's always been one of those kids who gets hit hard with illness and we attribute that to her congenital cytomegalovirus infection. However, this time, she's had no symptoms that screamed any particular illness.
Everything started going downhill about two weeks ago. She was SO tired and not herself at all. She's an especially energetic three-year-old and it was asking to take breaks from playing and even to take naps. She'd get bursts of energy and we'd think she'd turned a corner and then she would crash and whimper and ask to sit down and rest. On top of that, her lymph nodes in her neck started swelling and progressively have gotten bigger, to the point where they're easily visible. She was hardly eating. She ran low-grade fevers and would break out in random rashes (twice they looked like hives and she's had a recurrent on on her cheek that looks like pimples and then they disappear).
about a week and a half ago, she woke up crying from her nap. When I picked her up, I noticed she was soaked in her own sweat, she was pale and it looked like she'd been punched in the eyes. The dark circles have persisted. She started complaining of headaches, walking around wobbly and saying she was dizzy, being unsteady on her feet, having random rashes and having sores in her mouth. And she's been having accidents. She'll go to the bathroom and then pee all over the floor before she can get to the toilet. I took her in to her pediatrician this past Monday. Since then, she's been through tons of testing - CBC, Chem14, EBV, CMV (to check for a reactivation), LDH, ANA, chest xray, abdominal ultrasound. Everything has come back normal (except for her LDH being a little high). The last of the results came in Friday and we were instructed to keep an eye on her and follow up next week.
Last night, she woke up crying around 11pm. I scooped her up and she was soaked in sweat. It was dark, but I looked down and saw what looked like a bruise on her jawline. I used my phone to snap a pic with the flash while she slept and it wasn't a bruise - it was a large, bright red patch. I thought maybe she'd been laying funny in her bed, but it didn't fade. I checked again at 2am and it was still there. This morning it was gone.
I googled "red streaky rash" this morning and Lyme was one of the search results and I suddenly realized she'd had a tick at the beginning of the month. It was on her scalp. My husband was able to remove the whole thing, but it appeared it had a good hold because a strip of white tissue came with it. We put it in a baggie in the freezer and forgot about it.
So here's my question: does it sound at all like Lyme? Can rashes just pop up like that and then fade away? Is it possible we missed a tell-tale "bulls-eye" rash with it being on her scalp? I asked my husband a bit ago if her scalp looked irritated at all around the bite and he said it was red. I don't "do" ticks (they're like my kryptonite. I HATE them.) so he handled the whole thing and applied neosporin afterward, but we didn't look at the bite spot again and she has thick hair, so I suppose it's entirely possible we could have missed the site looking out of the ordinary. Would there have been any indication of Lyme in all the bloodwork she had done? Finally, if it does sound like it could be Lyme, how urgent is seeking medical care? I'll gladly take her to Urgent Care if it's warranted, but can also wait until Tuesday when her doc's office is open again if it can wait.
Thank you for for reading my lengthy post. :)