Hyperpyrexia

"Hyperpyrexia is another term for a very high fever. The medical criterion for hyperpyrexia is when someone is running a body temperature of more than 106.7°F or 41.5°C. Some doctors lower the measure for hyperpyrexia to include anyone with a body temperature of 106.1°F or 41.1°C and above."

106.5°F certainly puts Mira in that range. She's been just unhappy for two weeks here, and we haven't been able to figure it out. She'll have long stretches each day when she's very comfortable and relaxed, and then something will set her off and she'll be just NOT. Poor Matt, who usually takes most of her cares at night, has been pretty tired lately, to say the least, and has been sneaking in a before-supper nap almost every day. Her lungs have been sounding good as per her nurse, but we're sitting here wondering, is she constipated? do her hips hurt? does she need to pee? is she getting TOO much of her meds to keep her from getting constipated and she's crampy? does she have COVID? (Because knowing her, she would manifest in some really odd ways, just because!) is there a hair wrapped around her little toe? is it emotional anxiety? something else?? She's a tricky one.

Last night when her heart rate was flying up into the 170s for the second time this week, we gave her the valium that calms her down, and went to bed. She was fussing a bit an hour later around midnight, so Matt came down and changed her, and she was quiet the rest of the night.

Well, turns out she was storming silently, which she's done once before - the valium didn't work. Her heart rate was flying, her respirations were ~150/minute, her temp was 106.5°F. We put her into a tepid bath and got her cooled down, gave her another dose of valium, but she was still having a tough time calming down.

We could tell she was really out of it because she wasn't complaining at ALL about being in the tub, which is not normal for her!!

A call down to Gillette, and we all decided that she should come in, via the ER (because with the temp they won't let her into Gillette's Quick-Care clinic for COVID reasons, though it's not likely to be COVID, and their Quick-Care isn't really set up for someone in her state anyway!) So off they went. She vomited as Matt was putting her into the van (right after this photo)

so we left the other kids with Leah and Rose so I could accompany them downtown, which was good, because she vomited again, which I was able to catch with the suction machine.

So, now we wait to see what they can figure out, which is usually "not much." Poor girl. She's missing her PT eval at noon today, which could very well be the source of her issues - hip pain. So now that will have to wait for next week. Oh well. What are you going to do?