Strep and Mono?!

Stratton missed a whole week of school last week!! He ran fever off and on all week and then about Wednesday got a bad cough that seemed to be getting worse. He stayed at Gigi and Pop’s house Wednesday and Thursday and he was coughing so bad he threw up a couple of times. So, I called and talked to a nurse on Thursday and they said to give the antibiotics another day and called us in some cough medicine to give him at night to help him sleep. Friday morning he was still running fever and still coughing, so I made an appointment and him back to the Dr. on Friday afternoon. We saw Dr. Bailey and she said his throat still looked bad. They retested him for strep and did some blood work (that was a nightmare) we even had him tested for mono. He tested negative for both strep and mono on the quick test they do in the clinic, but they wanted to send it off for another mono test. They put him on steroids for his cough, told us to keep on the antibiotics and check back on Monday.

Sshhh!! He’s concentrating!

Over the weekend Stratton has gradually gotten better. He’s been crazy from the steroids, but no fever and the cough is getting better. Saturday we went to the ASU game, it was homecoming and other than being restless he did great. Sunday we opted out of class since Stratton was still hacking- and I didn’t want him coughing all over the other kids. Plus, even though he isn’t supposed to be contagious with mono, I’d hate to tell that to another mom in the class. Believe it or not, most parents aren’t as knowledgeable as me when it comes to sickness and illness : )

Sunday night after church we had some families over to eat and he played like he wasn’t sick at all. I felt like the mono test would come back negative. . .

. . .and it did, well sort of.

Turns out they can tell from his blood that he has had mono BEFORE! It’s not active in his system right now, but he tested positive for it in his blood! Apparently, he has had mono before and we didn’t know about it. They told me it could have been anytime when he ran a fever for a few days and we probably just thought it was a virus (So, yeah that narrows it down to about 100 times he’s been sick!). I feel like a bad mom for not knowing, but we know now! She said that him having had mono before doesn’t make him more prone to getting it again- but I have done some research, and it looks like there is conflicting information and studies on that, so I guess we will just have to watch him closer now when he gets run down and has a fever.

Never a dull moment, I tell ya!

He went back to school today, and I hope he’s had a good day! They had PE today, so I was nervous about another collision- or him getting too worked up and having a coughing spell, but I didn’t get a call so I assume he’s fine! I hope we can kick this sickness thing for a while! We have a lot coming up in the next few weeks!