Unexplained viruses

Tonya - posted on 06/13/2011

Do not think you are crazy or anything of that sort cause you are mom and it is your job to make sure your children are taken care of. I will be praying for your daughter as well as for you to be able to breathe every time she does something. I am a mom of 7 and when my kids complain I go running but I try not to sound like I am freaking out so as no to alarm them just incase it is bad. It is human nature to be concerned. My oldest is gonna be 23 this year and they range down to gonna be 2 in September so I am lucky if I even have any hair left. I also have 4 grandchildren and one due in November so I have to keep my cool. You will learn the kwirks too lol. Just be the concerned mom you are and trust your gut. If something does not sound right ask questions if you have to write down your questions so you do not forget. My mom always told me and my siblings if every came a time you did not understand something keep asking questions until you do. I live by that motto and instill it in my children. I hope you find a doctor to help rest your mind at ease.

Bridget - posted on 06/12/2011

She has been on antibiotics to prevent kidney infections and to see if they would help the fevers- but the fevers seem to go away so fast I dont think the antibiotics help. She has had 6 ultrasounds, renal scans, CT scans etc. She has lots of tests! Nothing ever seems to be wrong. I guess my next step is to see a nephrologist, and hope nothing is wrong!

Emily - posted on 06/12/2011

I would go to the nephrologist. A virus does not typically cause a fever that high,,kidney stones, infections,,etc. do. Has she ever been given an antibiotic just to see if it helped bring the fever down? If antibiotics help then its not a virus. Keep taking her in for when the fevers get that high. Has she had a CT or ultrasound? Best wishes,I know its frustrating when you dont have a definite answer.

Cherie - posted on 06/11/2011

I would take her to as many doctors as it takes. Something is just not right. I'm a nurse & i would recommend seeing a kidney specialist. She should not be having such high fevers with no explanation. Fevers mean your body is fighting something off.

Bridget - posted on 06/05/2011

Thanks everyone! My daughter sees a pediactric urologist regularly, and every 6 months has sonograms to check her kidneys- she has also had other tests done, at first to check her kidney function- its how we found out her pelvic kidney is non functioning, and now to test the functionality of her remaining kidney- they call it a super kidney, estimating it works about 30% better than the average kidney.
Ive gotten conflicting advice about a nephrologist vs urologist. The nephrologist is JUST a kidney doctor, while the urologist deals with the whole system. Ive been told the nephrologist is unnecessary since the urologist is monitoring her kidney- we go into Childrens Hospital in DC and a team of doctors review the case and tests before they will even comment on how she looks. They are different kinds of pediactric doctors. They are fabulous and Im comfortable with their care Im just nervous something could be missed because they arent looking for that specific problem.
My sister has been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and an additional bladder disease, which I cant remember. She has been to TONS of Drs and in the hospital and they never discovered the problem until she ended up going to a doctor who decided to be safe and check for these problems. Phew, anyway......Thanks for the advice. Im going to wait until we move to Pittsburgh and take her to a pediactric nephrologist up there- DC has fantastic Drs, but Pittsburgh is one of the best places for childrens medicine. That is happening in just a few weeks, so Im keeping my fingers crossed and praying she is just going through some weird viruses that we dont find anything else wrong!

Diane - posted on 06/05/2011

I feel that you should definitely take her to a pediatric nephrologist, if there is such a thing. Maybe a childrens specialty hospital. If she is saying it hurts there has to a reason why. Regular ER doctors do not specialize with children. They are equipped to handle emergencies only. So I would definitely find a nephrologist that handles or that has handled lots of children. Good luck and hope she feels better soon.

Amy - posted on 06/05/2011

My daughter will run a fever every now and again. It gets up to about 103 as well and the doctors always use the "virus" line. Sometimes she will have no other symptoms and sometimes she will have diarrhea. I am sure to pay attention to what she is eating so I will know if it is a food allergy or something else. Just last week I had did a drop in at the gym and left her in the child watch area for about 35 minutes and the very next day she had a fever. She usually stays home so I figured she caught something from one of the children there but her Dr said symptoms would show up that soon. I took her back to the doctor after the fever did not go away on day 4, they checked her out and everything looked fine and she had no other symptoms. The next day the fever went away and then she had a runny nose and cough. My sister came over and she ended up getting cold like symptoms and then my throat started hurting so I figured It must have been something else. I took her to the dr and she ended up having to get an antibiotic for strep throat. We went to the dr 3 times within 2 weeks. My daughter will also fuss when it is time to get her diaper changed and will act as if she is sore but then if I give her something to distract her she is just fine so I think she just is not wanting to be changed. It could be a normal kid thing or it could be something else. I hate to jump on the bandwagon but if you really feel it is something more please do look into it. I know I will take my daughter to the dr or to a specialist quick fast and in a hurry, especially because she had a brain hemorrhage as an infant so I am extra cautious with her. But she really does get fevers that come and go very often and my niece who is 4 days younger than my daughter just recently had a spell where she was throwing up. My niece was taken to the ER and her ped and they found nothing wrong. She is just fine now! When all else fails Pray about it!! Good luck!

Michelle - posted on 06/05/2011

Has she gotten internal x rays or exams in any way? I was born with 2 1/2 kidneys (weird, I know) and I had all sorts of problems as an infant, bladder infections on top of other things, anyways, they finally checked me out and saw that I had an extra mal-formed kidney and the tubes were not connected properly, leading me to actually have pee float around in my body instead of getting rid of it, I was close to dying and at 1 year old had an operation to fix all of that.. It worked, I'm 30, still have 2 kidneys and haven't had a problem since :)
So I'm just saying, it could be something way different than what your doctor is looking for, unfortunately doctors are only human and they are very fallible, so go to that kidney expert and see what he says. I'm not trying to scare you or anything, but a mother's intuition is probably stronger than whatever knowledge that doctor read in a book.
GOOD LUCK!

Amanda - posted on 06/05/2011

if you dont like the drs answers and you feel she needs to go to the kidney dr i would take her then, go with what your gut is telling you!! always trust your self before the dr. you know it runs in your family so why not to be on the safe side!!:) good luck

Maya - posted on 06/04/2011

I'm no doctor and I only experienced my grandmother very sick with kidney issues. If she was my child I would send her to the kidney doctor. The symptoms you discussed sounds very similar to my grandmother's when she was having acute kidney failure. I really hope the best for you and your and daughter.

Angie - posted on 06/04/2011

See a pediatrician and try to always see the same one. He or she will have a sense of your child after some time. See the nephrologist. I have kidney disease, I've had sugery, you want to make sure that it's really ok.

Her urine is"dirty" but dirty of what??? What about chrone's disease? Sometime there are tubule from the intestines to the bladder...

Sherry - posted on 06/03/2011

Often the "It's a virus" diagnosis is a phrase doctors use instead of saying, "we don't know what's wrong". You know your daughter better than anybody and if your gut instincts are telling you the doctor has missed something, then go with your gut instincts and see another doctor until a true diagnosis is made. My son nearly died at 4 months old because the ER doctor said "it's just a virus", when it was actually pneumonia.

Bridget - posted on 06/01/2011

April, I like the natural route- I will definitely look into that once Ive taken her to the nephrologist. I dont want to be a crazy paranoid parent, and my past medical issues dont help with that. When I was her age I suddenly came down with a high fever and vomiting. My parents took me to the ER where it was discovered I was severely anemic and through tests they discovered my body was not producing red blood cells and they found blast cells (Leukemia). They gave me less than 2 weeks to live if they couldnt get the anemia under control, and I was scheduled for a transfusion. Long story short, I had last minute tests run right before the transfusion was to take place the they discovered I was on the mend and very quickly I was back to normal. No explaination was ever found and I was never diagnosed with anything specifically.
But even with my paranoia aside, there is a legit issue. And I feel like fevers from 103-105 are pretty indicitive of a problem. Thanks for all of the suggestions and comments. Im praying everything is fine and these are just viruses.

April - posted on 06/01/2011

hi,
Im really sorry you guys are having to go through all of this! My short answer to this would be that these unexplained illnesses are not normal. I have a little girl and 10 friends who all had their babies within a year of me and all of our kids have had a fever maybe once or twice each. So i would definitely look into that. The fever is fighting off, so she isnt just getting a fever for no reason. I dont know much about medical issues, but i am responding to just throw an idea out at you.... I was having unexplained medical issues about a year ago and my drs couldnt figure out what was wrong with me after a lot of tests and basically was told i was crazy... so i went to a natural dr to get some of their tests run and in one visit they figured out that my adrenal glad wasnt working (kind of like addisons disease but not as severe) and all i needed were some natural supplements to correct my issue and it worked. So all Im saying is if you exhaust your medical doctors, you always have other options.
Good luck and I hope your little girl gets better soon!

Carolyn - posted on 06/01/2011

I would see the nephrologist, the dirty urine along with fever & pain "down there" is a little concerning. Not to be alarming in any way, I am by no means a doctor or any medical professional, but I have a cousin who has something call Interstitial Cystitus (sp) IC for short. Basically what that is is the lining of the bladder is "shedding". It can be very painful & I believe can cause fevers, it's also very hard to diagnose. This disease is not very common so please don't "freak out", I'm just making a suggestion to tell the doctor. Good luck & I hope she gets to feeling better soon!!



PS - chances are that they are just some weird viruses, my sons have had quite a few of those, but the older one just graduted Pre-K.

Bridget - posted on 05/31/2011

No runny nose or cough. Just high fevers, and just the once vomiting. I know kidney infections can be painful, but sometimes they are just sore. They have tried testing if her kidneys hurt, they dont seem to. Im also afraid it could be something other than an infection. The doctors are saying that whatever caused the dirty urine is probably what is bothering her, they have also speculated that since we are potty training she could be more aware of peeing and doesnt understand that saying "hurts" means there is pain, and maybe its just acknowledgement that she needs to go or is going to go. That could be it, its hard to tell. The only place she complains of pain is her front, whether she has a diaper rash or not. I hear it quite a few times a day.
I will take her to a nephrologist, and Im hoping its nothing, just an odd time with a bunch of viruses.

Sabra - posted on 05/31/2011

does she have a runny nose or cough or anything because those almost always accompany kid viruses. The thing that sets me off is that she is grabbing herself and saying it hurts. Does she have a diaper rash or anything that it could be? I know at this age it could be hard to tell but if it hurts specifically when she pee's then its not just a regular kid virus. Does she have pain anywhere else? I know at this age its hard to tell but a crampy feeling (like after drinking a bunch of water and then going for a run) can be a bladder infection (which I know has been ruled out) and a lower back pain on the side her kidney is on could be kidney stones (unlikely because they are excruciatingly painful) her lower- mid back is where her kidney is and tap there with your hand not to soft but not to hard and if she seems upset by it then its probably a problem with her kidney.



I would go to the nephrologist. They are much more knowledgeable about this than a regular doctor the infection tests may come out the same but there are lots of other things that can be wrong with kidneys to cause problems.