The light! I think?

I am very hopeful that Erik has turned the corner.  He woke up with a small fever (99.6) but it has not gotten any higher and he has much more energy today that he has had for the past 8-9 days.

If he stays fever free (or under 100) today this will be the first day since August 17th.  It's been a long 10 days.  He was never in any acute distress but watching your 4 year old fight fevers ranging from 101.6 - 103.2 for a solid 9 days is distressing for the mother!

He started new antibiotics yesterday morning and is now on Levaquin (a fairly small dose of a very potent and somewhat risky antibiotic).  The peds infectious disease (ID) doctor our pediatrician worked with during her residency used Levaquin in outpatient pediatric patients that didn't respond well to Amoxicillin/Augmentin.  It is also recommended by the ID society of America for pediatric patients not responding to Amoxicillin/Augmentin within 72 hours.

He had rapid viral tests done this morning which came back negative.  Most likely this is just a crappy case of community acquired pneumonia but part of me wonders if he didn't aspirate a little piece of meat as Erik is my super "choky" kid and I know he choked on a piece of meat 48 hour before this pneumonia showed up out of nowhere.  (Erik was in OT when he was two because of weak oral muscles/drooling/choking.) Aspiration pneumonia is less likely but the etiology doesn't make a difference at this point as long as he continues to improve.

We will likely repeat the chest xray in 4-6 weeks to confirm that everything has resolved.   I don't know if he just needed time or if it is the Levaquin kicking in after 24 hours but he does seem to have turned the corner today.  I am hoping to send him to school for the first time tomorrow!

Thanks for checking in with us!

If you don't mind keeping these prayers in mind...

1) Erik's fever stays away!!
2) Chest xray is completely clear when we repeat it in 4-6 weeks
3) That Erik's asthma/reactive airway disease doesn't get worse after having pneumonia (again)

For those of you curious about the x-ray here is a picture of it....

Look at all the air Erik had in his tummy/bowel!

If he happens to spike another temp tonight (lets hope not!!) we will still just wait it out another day or two before doing anything more aggressive.