Friday 4/11/08

Jessica has had a really bad week! I'm worried. So, I'm online looking at an epstein barr message board, where I see others saying their symptoms are lasting years. While I was waiting to hear the lab results from our primary care doctor, I called the clinic that we went to at Children's Hospital to let them know how she was doing and see what they said. When the nurse there called me back, she was not very nice, and I got off the phone so upset! She said "what do you want us to do? her epstein barr (ebv) test results came back negative; you can go to your primary care doctor to check for other things, and even if it was positive there isn't any medicine that we could give her." Then the nurse at our primary care called me to say that this set of lab tests showed that she had an "old [ebv] virus" so that means she should be better according to the lab. But our doctor also said that the results didn't correspond with the way she was feeling when she came into his office. He's supposed to call us this weekend. I think the doctors, everyone is baffled. Some have asked if she's depressed, if there's anything going on at school, if this is psychosomatic. That is so not Jessica! What I'm reading online looks like the symptoms can continue for a long time. Tonight when I put Jessica to bed she said "someone needs to go pick out Mia's feet." I asked if that meant she didn't feel like going, and she said she didn't really feel up to it. Ya know she doesn't feel good if she doesn't want to go see her horse. My stomach's been upset for the past few days, and I know it's because I'm worried about Jessica. Luckily today the kids were out of school for parent/teacher conferences, so she slept this afternoon, and Matthew took care of her.

She did make it through the day at school yesterday by pushing herself. She wanted to be picked up at lunch, but still had to finish a standardized test after lunch. They had started it in the morning, but had tornado sirens going off and had to sit in tornado drills for about 1-1/2 hours.

Wednesday 4/9/08

I couldn't get Jessica up this morning, so I was going to leave her in bed. But when I went back up to check on her right before I left, she said she didn't want to stay home; she wanted to go to school. Of course her eyes were still closed, and she hadn't moved. I had been having to put my ear to her mouth to hear her. She also said she was having trouble breathing or getting enough air in her lungs. I fixed her some toast for breakfast. She was moving slow, but she did get up and my dad got her to school at 11:00. She seems better now. I just emailed our doctor. He asked me to remind him today to check for her lab results. So hopefully I'll hear something soon.

Tuesday 4/8/08

Again this morning I couldn't get Jessica out of bed. Steve couldn't either. So I left her in bed. She texted me at 9:15 - had just woken up. But she didn't get up except to eat. Otherwise she stayed in bed most all day, worn out. I thought we were past this! So, I took her back to the doctor this afternoon. He did lab work, wanted to check everything to make sure there isn't something else going on too - mentioned the arthritis family - and told me not to worry, that that's his job. Her white blood cell count was normal, so that was good. But I should hear about some of the rest of it tomorrow.

My dad came over today to check on Jessica and bring her lunch. Then he took our rabbit to the vet and then brought him back this evening. My mom said that she's keeping tabs, keeping a list for when she gets older and needs help. I needed a clone today otherwise!

Monday 4/7/08

I struggled to get Jessica out of bed this morning. I literally sat her up myself, and tried to get her up, until she cried. I hate that! She didn't feel good, and only got to school this morning because I pushed, but the doctor had said she needed to make herself go. But then my dad had to go get her at 1:00 and take her home. She was exhausted and had a headache. She was asleep when we got home, and still is.

Tuesday 4/1/08

We couldn't get Jessica out of bed this morning. She wasn't doing good - sore throat and exhausted. I couldn't get her to budge. She was like a rag doll. She did make it to her last class, which was her science test.

Jessica was too out of it to push herself this morning. It is hard to know how much to do or not do though. And on the good days, it's hard to know when to stop and rest or to take advantage of the fact that she's feeling good.

She's says she's some tired now, but she seems better! I was just hoping this was over.

Monday 3/31/08

Jessica had a rough first day back to school after spring break. She came home feeling really bad - headache, sore throat, exhausted, etc. She said she wanted to call me during dance class, but didn't want to miss science. She's had a sore throat this whole year with the mono. We've eaten dinner early (she thought eating something would help her head), and she went to bed to take at nap. She had a lot of homework/studying to do for a test for tomorrow, so I planned on waking her up to get her homework done before bedtime.

I had trouble waking Jessica back up from her nap. She was so out of it that she started to cry when I tried harder to wake her up. After a while, I managed to get her up and have helped her with civics while she's studying for science.

Sunday 3/30/08

Jessica's keeping up with schoolwork, sometimes with me sitting there helping her get it done. Her teachers have been great. They've even exempted her from some things. And we've done makeup work and even a test at home. Last 9 weeks she made 1 B and the rest A's --
Pre-Ap Physical Science - A
Pre-Ap Civics - B
Family Consumer Science (Home Ec) - A
Drill/Dance Team (Junior Varsity) - A

On her report card it shows that she's missed (either whole or partial) 29 days this past 9 weeks.

Tuesday 3/18/08

Jessica made it all day today. Another good day!

Monday 3/17/08

We couldn't get Jessica out of bed this morning. She had 3 good days before that, but this morning, she couldn't open her eyes when it was time to get ready for school. I had to put my ear to her mouth to hear what she was trying to say to me. I tried to get her up this morning, shook her a little, talked to her, told her she had a test that she didn't need to miss, even turned on her tv thinking it would wake her up slowly. Then I went and got Steve, and told him it was his turn! But he didn't have any luck either. The last time he made her get up when she really didn't feel up to it, she ended up in tears. So, I don't think he wants to push too hard now. It's been suggested to push her harder to get her to school, until others can see how tired she is, that it is her illness and not just not wanting to go to school or something. I know Jessica really doesn't feel well if she's not going to school. She's better, and made it to her last class.

We did do a little bit this weekend, but Jessica was mainly riding in the car and sitting, so I didn't think it was too much. We went out to eat all 3 nights with my parents. And we did go see Mia both Saturday and Sunday, but the doctor had said she could even ride her now. Jessica stayed home while we were at church, and both the kids stayed home while Steve & I went to an Easter service last night.

Thursday 3/13/08

Jessica didn't make it all day today. She was exhausted, so my mom picked her up at 11:30, lunchtime, for a short nap before her last class. She's studying now for tomorrow's test. She's tired, so we'll need to get done and get her in bed early tonight.

Thursday 3/13/08

We got a school note in the mail today from the Children's Hospital doctor. The nurse there had told me that she needed to be increasing her activity, so I didn't know what to expect in the note. But, thankfully, it was good. The note said that she would miss parts of days for the next few weeks and for the school to be understanding of that. So, I guess it's normal that Jessica still can't make it all day sometimes.

Wednesday 3/12/08

Jessica had a really good day yesterday, all day. But today got up not feeling well, really really tired. She pushed herself to go to school. My dad was supposed to pick her up at 11:07 for lunch anyway, but I got a message from her a little bit earlier asking if he'd come on. He said she looked bad when he picked her up, and I called her then and she didn't sound good. Just worn out. I didn't think she'd make it back to class, but she slept hard, and made it back for science class. She seems to be better than she was this morning.

Tuesday 3/11/08

Jessica seemed to have done ok today. She made it the whole day. She has a headache tonight, but so do I. She's asking me to pet her head, so this will be short. She's studying for a test now.

It's good that she makes good grades. And I think we're lucky that her mono happened this semester instead of last semester during math and English classes. As far as classes and schoolwork, she's doing ok. She's missed most of dance this semester, but her teacher told me it wouldn't effect her grade, which has always been an A in that class. She'll start adding that back in in the next few weeks. Right now most of the class is preparing for tryouts for next year, but Jessica had already decided to spend time with her horse instead of dance team next year.

Monday 3/10/08

I talked to a nurse at Children's Hospital today, and she said that Jessica's Epstein Barr test from last week came back negative. So, good news! She said she should gradually add activities. And her regular doctor's office called to check on her today too. And said that she will have to make herself go to school, etc. My parents did pick her up from school today for lunch and dance. But, she has had 4 good days in a row!

The doctor at Children's had given the ok for her to start doing things including riding her horse, though we're going to take it easy on that.

Friday 3/7/08

Jessica seems to be feeling pretty good today.

Thursday 3/6/08

We couldn't get Jessica out of bed this morning, but she made it to school in the afternoon. My parents came over with her, said she didn't look good when she got up, but she started feeling better and made it to school for her last class, science. I'm so ready for her to be completely well!

Tuesday 3/4/08

We went to the doctor's appointment at Children's Hospital today. It was a lady doctor, and she seemed good. Basically she didn't tell us anything different though. It is Epstein Barr mono. She said some people have it for a couple of months. (We're in our 9th week.) She said it looked like from the blood work done previously that Jessica's mono had peaked and was on the road to getting better. She said there is a chronic mono, so she drew more blood just to confirm that she doesn't have that and is getting better. We'll hear the results from that at the end of the week. She liked how she was going to school half days. Her spleen had gone down, and she said she could ride Mia for a short time. And to listen to her body and see what she feels like doing. She said she needs to do things gradually, so she doesn't end up back in bed. She said something about it could take another month to get back up to speed. Today Jessica felt good and had a good day. But she's been having a couple of good days followed by a couple of bad days.

Tuesday 3/4/08

As far as all the things she's missing (friends, dance (a big dance performance with all the schools dancing together, her last performance), etc.), she's almost too tired to care. When I asked her how she felt about missing the dance performance, she said she was ok with it because she was too tired to dance. She does miss riding Mia though.

Monday 3/3/08

Jessica stayed home from school today, and stayed in bed. She tried to get up this morning and get ready. Took a shower, and said she thought she was going to have to sit down in the shower. So she ended up back in bed. She was worn out. Steve's mom came over to bring her a pizza for lunch.

She sounded so bad when I called her, so weak. So I left work an hour early.

Sunday 3/2/08

We made it three hours yesterday at the horsemanship show. I thought Jessica would last longer. I had dropped the kids off at the door so she didn't have to walk. And we were just sitting watching. At 12:30 during the lunch break, Jessica told me she didn't feel good and wanted to go home. You know she doesn't feel good if she asked to go home from that that she's been looking so forward to for months, and had a friend with her on top of that. She came home and slept for two hours and still felt tired.

Today - This morning I thought she was ok when she got up, but before long she was feeling sick and back in bed. She started crying because she knew she didn't feel like going. (She hardly ever cries.) I hate that!! I had to call her friend for her, and Steve and Matthew went ahead and went. She's sleeping now. She's looked forward to going to this horsemanship show so much; I hate that she can't be there. Steve and Matthew took the camera, and took her plastic horses that she wanted signed.

Jessica took two naps today, and is starting to wind down again. Steve and Matthew are back from the horse show. They stayed all day. Jessica's happy that they were able to get autographs for her, and pictures. The part of the horse show that we did get to see though was really good!