Covid… that was the last thing I expected she would test positive for when our doctor sent us to the hospital when Kierstyn was really, really sick a few weeks ago.
She had come down with a fever and a really bad case of what we thought were hives all of a sudden on a Sunday night a few weeks ago. We called the after-hours nurse and she had us go in and get it checked out at the walk-in clinic that night. They thought it was just some sort of allergic reaction + a virus. They gave her Benadryl and told us what to watch for and sent us home.
Her fever went up and her hives got worse Sunday night/early Monday morning. She was miserable and my mama heart felt like something wasn’t right. We called our pediatrician Monday morning and got Kierstyn in to see her. Kierstyn’s fever continued to rise and her rash/hives got a lot worse and she was inconsolable, so our pediatrician sent us to the hospital.
In addition to giving her IV fluids and meds, they ran a battery of tests/bloodwork… and we were all shocked when she tested positive for rhinovirus and Covid. (We knew something was up when the lady came in in a sort of hazmat looking suit to tell us the results!!)
They were able to find some meds to give her some relief and calm her down and her breathing looked good, so they sent us home with meds and what to look for and watch for (they felt she’d be more comfortable at home and they said basically what they were doing at the hospital we could also do at home, since she didn’t need any oxygen or anything).
In this week’s episode, we share about our experience, Kierstyn’s recovery process, what we learned about MIS-C, surprising info that we never expected from test results, and lessons we learned from this experience.
At the beginning of this episode, we start it out like we always do — giving you some life updates, talking about books, sharing about what’s saving our life, and sharing some listener feedback!
Note: I know that even talking about this topic can be hot-button and controversial — something I seek to avoid in what I post here. We wanted to share our story since so many of you care and were praying when Kierstyn got so sick + we are hopeful that our story will be helpful to some of you — since there was a lot we learned in the process and wish we had known. However, we tried to tell it in a way that would not be controversial or triggering to anyone. Instead, we hope it is helpful. As always, comments that are seeking to debate or are related to hot-button issues will be deleted. There are plenty of other spaces to discuss those things on the internet. Thank you for making this a debate-free, politics-free blog!
In This Episode:
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[0:35] – We explain why we took the last two weeks off.
[2:00] – We also went on our annual trip recently with my extended family.
[2:55] – I recently finished listening to The President Is Missing — an audiobook Jesse recommended!
[8:06] – What has been saving my life.
[10:30] – Hear a funny story about my recent trip to the dentist.
[12:57] – It’s listener feedback time!
[18:16] – We start sharing our recent story involving our experience with COVID-19.
[20:45] – Learn about what happened a couple weeks ago on the weekend of a baseball tournament.
[23:11] – We share what our daughter was initially diagnosed with.
[26:06] – Our daughter’s fever was 104, and medical personnel knew something was wrong.
[28:48] – We were shocked to find out that Kierstyn tested positive for COVID.
[31:26] – We had so much planned that the COVID diagnosis impacted.
[34:09] – The new hospital where Kierstyn was transferred didn’t seem as concerned.
[36:02] – We started thinking back over the last few weeks and things started making sense.
[38:02] – What we learned from the testing we got done.
[40:42] – What Kierstyn’s recovery process looked like.
[41:42] – Two lessons we learned from the experience.
Links and Resources:
- James Patterson & Bill Clinton – The President Is Missing
- Libby
- The Crystal Paine Show – Episode 133: Our Best Strategies for Raising “Twins”
- Love-Centered Parenting
- 10 Days to Be a Happier Mom
- Sign up for the Hot Deals Email List
- MoneySavingMom.com
- My Instagram account (I’d love for you to follow me there! I usually hop on at least a few times per day and share behind-the-scenes photos and videos, my grocery store hauls, funny stories, or just anything I’m pondering or would like your advice or feedback on!)
- Have feedback on the show or suggestions for future episodes or topics? Send me an email: [email protected]
How to Listen to The Crystal Paine Show
The podcast is available on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can listen online through the direct player here. OR, a much easier way to listen is by subscribing to the podcast through a free podcast app on your phone. (Find instructions for how to subscribe to a podcast here.) Ready to dive in and listen? Hit the player above or search for “The Crystal Paine Show” on your favorite podcast app.
Kathleen says
I am honestly SO surprised that no one went for testing the weekend when you were all sick. Where I live any of that would be a trigger for testing immediately. Fevers, aches, headache, diarrhea, even just feeling malaise/off could potentially be symptoms. Was it just that you had such a strong association with loss of taste/smell and Covid that you didn’t go that weekend?
Makes so much sense now how you infected your friend! You were still very infectious at that time. I hope all of you and her end up being ok.
MIS-C is serious stuff. Thanks for sharing your story and encouraging people who feel sick to go get tested!
Crystal Paine says
Looking back, we so wish we had all gotten tested. But almost everyone we know here has gotten Covid over the last year and a half (we feel like we are basically the very last people to have it!) and every single family has had at least a few who lost taste and smell. So the fact that none of us lost taste or smell and that we hadn’t been around many people and no one we had been around had come down with Covid, just made us not really consider that it was a possibility. Especially because I guess we expected Covid to be a whole lot worse than what felt like a very mild case of the flu. It just felt like our annual family sickness that we usually get some form of with everyone having fevers (I was the only one who really had any stomach issues and those only lasted for about 6 hours). In fact, it felt much milder than our usual once-a-year sickness that we all seem to always come down with.
We’ve also been tested multiple times over the past year and every time it has always been negative, so I think maybe that played into it, as well?? Like, there’s a point when you just start assuming that you aren’t going to get it or something. Which is why we wanted to do this podcast and just remind people that — even if you think there’s no way it could be Covid, still get tested if you have any of the symptoms.
We recovered super quickly and so did our friend — for which we are all grateful for! And we’re grateful that we were hardly around anyone during that timeframe of when we would have been contagious (and that I had on a mask at the hospital and wasn’t around anyone other than my friend since I was in her room basically the entire time I was there).
wendy gepford says
My 8 year old got MIS-C and was in ICU for 15 days. She was one of the worst cases that they had at the time here in California. It has been a long recovery for her since Feb. with taking steroids and a lot of vitamins to help with her anemia and vitamin c deficiency. Thank you for sharing your story so more people are aware of it. Will pray for your daughter and family during this time.
Crystal Paine says
I am so sorry you went through that! There is so very little information out there about MIS-C, so we are hoping that by sharing our story, it will be helpful to some. We hadn’t really even heard of it before what we experienced!
wendy gepford says
Read up on Kawasaki disease, which is similar to MIS-C. The only difference is that with kawasaki they can’t pinpoint why the children got it. With MIS-C they can pinpointe that it was caused by Covid. Please continue to update us with her recovery would love to see if she has similar after effects. My daughter almost passed away from it, and since her body went through alot she became anemic, vitamin c deficient and she lost most of her hair. we are giving her hair and nail gummies and that has helped a lot. all of her scans, ekg, mri have come back normal so far.
Crystal Paine says
We looked into that as that was something that a medical professional brought up early on… but she didn’t have the common markers of it except for the fever/rash (I had never heard of it until Kierstyn got sick.). We continued to watch for Kawasaki symptoms in the weeks afterward and they didn’t show up, but they are doing bloodwork/scans this coming week to check to make sure she’s fully recovered (she had some abnormal bloodwork results at the hospital and they just want to double check her organs to make sure nothing is amiss).
I am so, so sorry your daughter has been so sick. I have heard from other parents whose children had Kawasaki and it sounds like it is such an awful disease… and that it can often be mis-diagnosed!
Mary G says
It’s a pretty scary virus. Thanks for sharing your experience. I think we all need to support each other–our families, our co-workers, our communities–and do our best to get through this time.
Ann says
HThis breaks my mama heart! I will be praying for your whole family!!!!!
Crystal Paine says
Thank you! We are hoping that our story will be helpful to others!
Heather says
Thanks for sharing. Sorry, I didn’t catch if Baby D had antibodies also?
Crystal Paine says
We were unable to get him tested since drawing blood for him often requires sedation. He never showed any symptoms… and has been so healthy, which we are so grateful for!
Katie says
i guess i will never understand why none of my posts, which always abide by guidelines, are approved.
guess i’ll stop trying. hopefully you at least read the comments i made to answer your question. this is coming form a medical professional whose former mentor literally only researches breast milk. i give up, been reading your site well over a decade and click your affiliate links regularly…🤷♀️ questioning why.
Crystal says
I really appreciated your comment — it just had some info in it that could be controversial to some of my followers, so I didn’t approve it because I didn’t want to start a political debate here. (As I mentioned in the post above.) Covid, sadly, has become a really hot-button topic, and we debated even sharing our story because of that… but we hope what we share is helpful to others and we also felt you all had prayed so much for her when she was sick that we wanted to share.
Katie says
Thank you for responding. But respectfully,..there wasn’t. I reread multiple times before posting to make sure there wasn’t anything besides supportive comments, and science-based discussion/questions. I understand your concern but there was literally nothing controversial in it. Based on the answers to the question I posed, I was going to give additional info on MIS-C advice/information that may help your family (disclaimer: not your medical provider, of course :)).
Whatever, glad everyone is doing better. Please update us after her cardio exam. I’ve only had a few patients with diagnosed MIS but no children (because I don’t work PICU or NICU). So freaking scary.
Crystal Paine says
Like I said, I really appreciated it. I have dear, dear friends who believe very, very differently than us on Covid, so that has helped me to understand more what actually is controversial or not. Things that might feel super straightforward to one person are very controversial to someone else. So that’s why I put the disclaimer on the post and that’s why I am moderating comments so closely. I do not want this to turn into a debate in the comments… and unfortunately, certain words and phrases and info can cause that really quickly. But thank you for sharing what you did as it was helpful information as I’m learning and researching!
Sandra Snook says
Hi Crystal — While it’s a good guess, your nursing did not deplete your antibody levels. Antibody titers are just a snapshot in time and they go up, then down. Individual values will vary quite a bit so the actual number is not that important – and you can’t tell too much from one time measurements. But I sure am glad everyone is ok. Also — data suggests that the loss of smell and taste occurs less often with the delta varient.
Crystal Paine says
Thank you for sharing! We have actually heard differently from medical professionals on the antibody count. We were thinking of getting mine re-tested in a few weeks. There’s so much information out there and so much that is being learned all the time. Someone else told me that stress can deplete things… but I don’t know! I’m really curious because our numbers varied so widely. But who knows? Maybe they mean nothing at all other than that you either have them or you don’t!
Guest says
That is interesting about the Delta variant. Everyone in our family had COVID around Christmas/New Year and three of us lost our taste/smell but the other three did not. Now that you mention it is less likely with the Delta variant, I have not been hearing about loss of taste/smell as much.
keb says
Thank you for sharing – I’m so sorry your little one had to go through it! Positive thoughts for continued good news regarding her recovery.
Kjg says
Thanks! This is the first podcast I have listened to and first time for yours!
Thanks for your story . My teenage son was the first one tested in our family and was hospitalized for a few hours and I just knew by then me and his younger brother had it too . Husband tested a few days later . We mostly had fever , aching , sinus and cold symptoms and loss of appetite and smell and taste kind of came after fever and aches were resolving ! So glad kierstyn got the help she needed . I doubt we will ever know where we contracted it but likely my son brought it home to us .
Thanks for your podcast!
Crystal Paine says
Aw! Thank you for being a first-time listener!
lej says
Thank you so for sharing. It has inspired me to go for testing again.
Cathy says
Thank you so much for sharing your COVID story. It is so difficult to know about this disease and what happens with it in children. So sorry for all her suffereing and your suffering through this as well. So glad tha Kierstyn is better. God is so good, in the good and bad times He is with us always.
Chrissy C says
Listened to your post. The antibodies will stay with you for 3-6 months. Nursing does not diminish your antibodies -although it does help your LO. Just know that having had COVID, it temporarily gives you immunity but not permanently. Some people misunderstand this and think that having had COVID, they are now in the clear. Sadly it is not the case. I know people who have had COVID more than once now.
Crystal Paine says
Yes! We know a few people who have gotten it twice.
Melissa says
Thank you for sharing the info about your baby girl. People need to know what to look for so they can get the appropriate care for their kids ASAP. I hope Kierstyn recovers quickly!
Mackenzie Foust says
Thank you for always sharing the highs and lows. What a terrifying experience!