Sniffles, sneezes, fever, spots = MEASLES?

So, I had to skip ahead a bit, so I could start doing current updates on the resident munchkin. October has been by far the worst month health-wise since Brennan was born. She started off the month with a cold. Fabulous. The sniffles and sneezies. She finally shook that off after a few days. Then, after attending her very first birthday party on October 4th (Happy First Birthday, Ezra Dixon!), Brennan came down with a fever the very next afternoon.

October 5, 2011. The day the fever started.

I really thought she had picked up something from one of the other babies at the party. I heard that not only was Brennan unwell, but two other babies (including the birthday boy) were also sick. It happened so suddenly - just came on during her nap. It was so weird. I gave her some baby Tylenol to see if that would help. It didn't. By the next morning, you could have fried an egg on that baby. So, I took her to the local clinic. Her temperature was 103F (39.4C). The doctor proceeded to explain to me that they consider anything above 37.6C to be a fever. Well, I think Brennan hit that target. Brennan's temperature came down a bit after taking some of the prescribed medicine, but then spiked again overnight. Brennan had no energy at all and wanted to be held all day. She would sleep most of the day with one hour awake, one hour (or more) nap cycles. She was also very sensitive to light. She cried and cried when I put her in the bath, too. That Friday night, Brennan woke up every hour moaning and crying and burning up. She was in the bed with me as she was inconsolable in her crib. At one point, she went to sleep on my chest. She didn't even do that when she was a newborn. It was a really scary thing to witness. This was not my baby. By the time that Saturday rolled around, her fever finally broke. Her skin was clammy to the touch. Still something was not right. I noticed some spots on her head Saturday night, but really didn't think much of them except perhaps that they more baby acne. Sunday morning, we noticed Brennan had a rash on her forehead. Hmmm... Having been home with the baby all week, James was good enough to stay home, so I could go out and get some air with another mommy friend, Amy Robertson. By the time I got home, it was time to get Brennan ready for bed. As I was dressing her, I noticed the rash had spread down her chest and back onto her upper legs. I immediately told James to get on the Internet and look up the symptoms for measles. She met EVERY one of them. I was a little freaked out because Brennan was still about 6 weeks away from her first MMR vaccine, so I knew it was possible. On Monday morning, I called and made an appointment to see Dr. Park at Yonsei Severance Hospital. The earliest I could get in was around 3pm that day. I told them I suspected she had the measles. When we got there, the waiting room was jam packed. Mostly with children and babies (very young ones at that!). I was really nervous about Brennan possibly being very contagious, so I waited out in the corridor with her. And waited. Over an hour later, we were finally called. I explained to Dr. Park what my concerns were. It was fairly obvious that Brennan was not herself. She had no energy and wouldn't really try to interact with Dr. Park. Usually, she gives a great big grin. Dr. Park explained to me that measles were not common in Korea and that she really suspected another viral infection called roseola infantum. It presents in a similar fashion as measles, but is not as severe or contagious (and is caused by a completely different virus). She mentioned it was very common in babies under one year. I thought to myself, "If it's so common, why is this the first time I have ever heard of it?" I still requested that Brennan have bloodwork done to rule out measles. I wanted to be on the safe side as it was possible (but not probable) that it could still be a mild case of measles. Anyway, Dr. Park asked me to keep Brennan at home until the results came in. I hoped that the results would be in before Friday as Brennan had another birthday party to attend on Sunday. I managed to keep Brennan home most of the time (except for about 10 minutes when I had to go get some water from the store!).

Finally feeling better, but still on house arrest. October 12, 2011.

Dr. Park called with the results on Friday morning. She said the test was negative and that Brennan was cleared to go to the birthday party! In the meantime, Brennan came down with another cold which has made her super cranky. It's only October 17th!