Monday, May 16
Not sure what is wrong with gabriel. His neck- mostly right side of neck has huge soft lump. Huge. Last night it was small, but today it grew and it is big. His face looks little more swollen than usual. He does not complain any pain or discomfort. His apetite is down- I guess he feels some discomfort, but he is scared because he knows any pain will take him to doctors office. I allrady made apointment to take him in tomorrow. Until then I I have to live with not knowing what is wrong with him. ( If he had fever then all the symptoms tell me it is mumps, but he has no fever) Just hope it is nothing serious. (())
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11 comments:
i hope it turns out to be nothing, i know that fear never leaves. i keep happy thoughts for all.
Poor Gabriel...
Please let us know how he is. Could he have been stung or bitten by some insect or something?
Hi guys. We are back from doctor. Gabriel has lot of things going on. His lymph nodes are extremely enlarged, his tonsils are extremely enlarged, he has severe fungus on his fingers and toes and tomorrow or thursday we have to get him CT scanned to see if something else is going on with his neck area. Lymphnodes are swollen but they are not as severe as that huge lump he has on his neck. He got antibiotic shot today and he will be on augmentin next 10 days plus on some antifungal creams. Poor guy . :( I am trying to make apointment today but all the places are allready closed. :(
Oh no, poor sweetie.
Where are you going to take him for the CT scan?
Be careful where you go and make sure they are used to scanning children, some places use too high of a radiation dose for kids. As inconvenient and distasteful as it is, it might be best to haul him down to CHOC.
I'll ask my sis and I'll try to track down that article about kids and the CT scanner radiation.
I pray he's feeling better soon.
This is excerpted from http://nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/causes/radiation-risks-pediatric-CT.
Unique Considerations for Radiation Exposure in Children
Radiation exposure is a concern in both adults and children. However, there are two unique considerations in children.
Children are considerably more sensitive to radiation than adults, as demonstrated in epidemiologic studies of exposed populations.
Children also have a longer life expectancy, resulting in a larger window of opportunity for expressing radiation damage.
As an example, compared with a 40-year old, the same radiation dose given to a neonate is several times more likely to produce a cancer over the child's lifetime.
Moreover, the same exposure parameters used for a child and an adult will result in larger doses to the child. There is no need for these larger doses to children, and CT settings can be reduced significantly while maintaining diagnostic image quality. Therefore, children should not be scanned using adult CT exposure parameters. Currently, adjustments are not frequently made in the exposure parameters that determine the amount of radiation children receive from CT, resulting in a greater radiation dose than necessary.
One last thing, then I'll stop being a pain--
Did you mention to the doctor that you recently got a kitten? Did they culture Gabriel to try and get to the bottom of his symptoms?
Cat scratch disease can cause enlarged lymph nodes, I'm not so sure about all the other symptoms, but I think it's certainly worth mentioning to the doctor.
Has the kitten had all its shots? Although if it were cat scratch disease, I don't think the shots would help. Toxoplasmosis is another possibility with cats, and although its unusual, kids are much more susceptible than adults to this stuff, and toxoplasmosis can cause really enlarged lymph nodes also.
OK, I'm done now playing doctor, I'll go back to what I know best, programming :-)
OH NO, I did not mention thatI absolutly forgot . I will call doctor first thing tomorrow morning and ask.
kathy you can play doctor as much as you want. You always have right information :)
I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers!! I hope you get some answers soon; uuuuuuuuhhhhhhh the waiting game, a game I truly don't like to "play"!! I agree with Kathy it may be related to the new kitty. Lump nodes do and can swell from infections as well. As a teen our son had some acne issues and his lymp nodes in his neck were always very pronounced. Parents of children who have been seriouly sick could practice nursing without all of the training!!! I've worked with many who know a lot less than you guys do!!! Hang in there my heart goes out to you, enough is enough or at least in my book that's so!!!!
Marie
I got the hang of Gabriels doctor today and I told him about kitty Kiisu. We but CT scans on hold and on Friday he will run some tests on Gabriel( poor baby- you don't want to be around when he sees needles and you most defanitely don't want to be around when he gets to feel one) :(
Thank you Kathy for Pointing that out. I had never heard about Cat scratch disease before- but I did some online research and now I know. What is so confusing about all the diseases out there- most of them have same symptoms- allergies, this cat scratch thing, lymphnoma( sp), lot of the cancers etc. So how can I rest at night knot knowing which one Gabe got ?? If I remember right then last year , After me and Regina flew to Memphis, Gabriel stayed with our family friend and they have cat- and HE GOT THE SAME SYMPTOMS. He was on antibiotics , and got shots, and was other meds that eventually calmed her lymph nodes down, but it naver came to cat scratch, because we did not think it was important enough. Now here he is again- with the same thing- maybe he is allergic to cats. Or maybe it is just another coincidense??
If it's cat scratch disease or toxoplasmosis, it isn't an indication that he is allergic to the cat.
Kids under the age of 5 are much more disposed to get cat scratch disease or toxoplasmosis, also immunocompromised children so probably you should keep an eye on Regina also, but if her white counts are normal then she's probably at no more or even less risk than Gabriel.
Hard lumps that don't move and are not painful are more likely to be cancer, but I think I read that most kids get enlarged lymph nodes at some time and it's extremely unlikely to be cancer.
Maybe look at these:
Evaluation of neck masses in children
Neck Masses In Childhood
I'm glad you questioned the need for a CT scan. You don't want to expose Gabriel to that radiation unless it's necessary.
I know what you mean Kathy, but every time he is around pets( dogs also) he gets sick.
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