Reevey-poo

Reeve Russell. Buddy. Booger boy. Reevey-poo. Whatever we call him, he's our little man. He's always been small for his age, but probably the most healthy of all our children so far. So when he got his first fever, it did not alarm us at all. It would spike at night and pretty much go away during the day. We kept thinking it was over. It never got extremely high, he had no other symptoms, and for all intents and purposes he seemed totally fine. We let it run it's course and didn't take him to the doctor. The only thing abnormal to us was that it seemed to linger for about 10 days.

His second fever came a few months later. This time, it didn't go away during the day, but he had no other symptoms that we could see and he seemed otherwise normal. We took him to the doctor after the fever had stuck around about a week. Our pediatrician was not in, and so another doctor saw him. She was concerned by the long-lasting fever and had a strep test done. She wanted Reeve to get bloodwork done if the strep test came back negative as she was slightly concerned at the possibility of leukemia. This was obviously a blow to a mom's heart as Stefanie walked Reeve over to the lab to get the strep test taken. The quick strep test came back negative. The full test would take 48-72 hours.

Stef called me while I was at work and told me what the doctor had said. The thought of our child having leukemia rocked our world. I was distracted the rest of the day as I played out this scenario in my mind, praying and pleading with God that this would not be the case.

Super Bible Man! Yes, that's a pocket New Testament in his left hand.

In the coming days, as we waited to hear the strep test results, Stef and I battled with the thought of having a child with cancer and the gut-wrenching thought of losing a child to cancer. Our hearts were suddenly filled with compassion for the many families that have heard this kind of news and have tragically lost children. We were not trying to get ahead ourselves and realized that we were far from a diagnosis, but we couldn't stop our hearts and minds from traveling to these thoughts. With much prayer and comfort from God, we were reminded of the truth that children are a gift from God. And they are His to do with as He sees fit as it glorifies Him. We are put in the charge of them, and of course we love them as our own, but ultimately, each is a child of God and in the hands of God, we and our children. We laid our worries and fears at the feet of an all-mighty, loving, and gracious God as best we could. Once again we found ourselves brought to a place of surrender. Around this time, Needtobreathe, one of my favorite bands, released a song called "Multiplied". In it, one of the lines says, "God of mercy, sweet love of mine, I have surrendered to your design." It challenged me in the coming month. Have I? Have I truly surrendered to God's design.

The nurses called and said the strep test was almost complete and was likely negative. Of course, this only heighten our concerns. But later, they called back and said strep showed up at the very end of the test. They said this was rare. So, they put him on antibiotic, but by this time, the fever had left. Things still weren't adding up. At this point, our pediatrician suggested we wait to get blood work done and see if the fever comes back. We hoped this was the end of it.

I was awakened by the terror in Stef's voice like I've never heard before as she tried to wake me up out of my deep sleep. I jumped out of bed and was about to reach for my Easton aluminum little league bat I keep under the bed to fend off intruders (thanks Jarod Steffen) thinking my wife heard something downstairs. As my eyes focused, I realized she was handing me Reeve. (She had been up with him when he started acting strange and then fell back and began to shake). I still remember the blank look on his face as if his mind was off in some far away land. His eyes slightly rolled back and bubbles coming from the corner of his mouth. I held him in my arms and kept saying his name, my heart about ready to burst from my chest. "Reeve! Reeve!" He was burning up and shaking. Stef was getting ready to call 911. I told her to wait a second. We were in total freak out mode. We were helpless and terrified. Finally, after about half a minute, his eyes looked up at me and I could tell he was back. I laid him on our bed and we began to dab him with a cool, wet cloth. He was very lethargic for several minutes, just laying there not moving. We hugged him and kissed him. He seemed to be coming around. We called the on-call pediatrician. She said it was likely a febrile seizure, a common fever-induced seizure in toddlers. This was the second night of Reeve's third fever, June 14th.

Four days later, June 18th, Reeve's fever hit 105.5 around 8 PM. We called the on-call pediatrician who highly recommended we take him to the ER. Now the ER is not a fun place to be and it's a terrible place to take a 2 year old, but Parkview North ER was great and Reeve, bless his heart, did great. They even had a pediatric doctor there. The worst part was that they told us they'd need a urine sample after we had already taken Reeve potty about 3 times. He couldn't go anymore, so they had to do a catheter. This is traumatic for anyone, but much more for a 2 year-old that has no idea why these people keep poking him as his Dad and Mom stand by him and tell him it's OK. Hard thing for a parent to watch. They ended up not finding any reasons for his fever. The gave him ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and a powerful antibiotic, then after what had been about 5 hours, sent us home.

13424 HARBER 

Two days later, we ended up seeing a specialist who temporarily diagnosed him with PFAPA syndrome. A rare syndrome that unexplainably shows up in toddlers through periodic fevers (among other symptoms such as tonsillitis) and can last throughout their childhood, but eventually will be grown out of. The doctor said some families can even predict the day their child will get a fever, usually every 4 weeks. We were thankful to have a diagnosis. We were relieved and rejoicing that it was not more serious. But, we realized this could be life-altering for our family.

Tonight, as I write this, Reeve is on the second night of his fourth fever. He's had some other symptoms like a cough, but we went to the doctor today and nothing was conclusive as far as a reason for this fever. It is appearing more and more that the PFAPA diagnosis is correct. Please pray for sweet, little Reeve. And may we surrender him to God.