Carly's story. Part 5

After we returned home from vacation I took Carly to the doctor. It was around August 12 or so. The diagnosis was a double ear infection and a cold. We came home with a 10 day course of antibiotics. Carly did improve and we even potty trained her.

Carly was back in the groove of things until the end of August. She started to get sick again. She was very whinny - so not like her. She didn't really care to eat. Again, not like her. Back to the doctor we went. I was told there was a virus going around and she likely picked it up.

Football season was starting and Brad played football. In between the second doctor visit and the running to pick up Brad after practices. I realized that Carly had this weird rash on her legs. It looked like someone took a red ink pen and dotted all over her legs. After a few days, the red dots, well not all of them, but some would turn blue/purple. Being Carly had just had heart surgery in mid June. I just knew this all was related. I even called cardiology on Labor Day. They told me to bring her in if it would make me feel better, but that this virus that was going around included this type of rash. Ok. . . now what?! So, we waited. Carly got sick, again. Back to our doctor we went. He still believed this was viral. He too said this rash was going along with the virus. He then decided to place Carly on a dose of steroids. We did that.

In the mean time. I was still running to get Brad after practice. I ran into another players mother. She too had a son who had heart issues. He has had 7 open heart surgeries. Anyway, I had her look at Carly's legs. I asked her if she had ever seen anything like that with her son. The answer from her was,"no".

So, what did I do?? Well, I turned to the internet. I found things like yellow spotted fever..crazy things. I found so many crazy things. Lots of crazy things. One thing I did not find was petechia. How I didn't, I will never know.

By now, it's mid September. Carly was still not feeling well. Still had the rash. However, it had improved with the steroids. We were winging it. The doctor was sure it was a lingering virus.

Along came September 25, 2004. The day Ashleigh had been looking forward to for quite some time. This was the day of her Senior pictures. We were excited, but I was worried about Carly. We had my mom come stay with Carly so I could take Ashleigh. I knew Paul wouldn't be able to tend to Carly's needs. By now, Carly was sick. She was throwing up and crying that morning. She flat out refused to stand and or walk. Would not do it. I gave her some Tylenol and off I went with Ashleigh.

I had to make a mad dash to Wal-Mart. I needed more Tylenol. While we were there, Paul called me on my cell. He said "Your mom wants you to get home. She thinks we need to take Carly to the ER." Needless to say, Ashleigh and I headed home.

As I walked into our house. My mom met me at the door. She said Carly had been screaming in pain much of the time we were gone. By now, Carly was very pale. No color in her lips at all. Paul and I loaded her up and off we went to Ann Arbor.

As we entered the ER. A nurse just happened to be standing at the reception desk. This nurse looked at Carly and then asked me, "is this her normal color?" I snapped back, "NO, she is sick." We were taken back to a room almost immediately. This nurse new something really bad was wrong.

To be continued...