Wiggly

We have had quite a scare with our Addie Boo this past week. Last Monday she came down with a fever and complained of a headache before lunch. She ended up taking a nap then passing out again on the couch for a few hours complaining of aches and pains, just moaning and groaning. I've never seen her like that. We prepared for the flu. That evening when she woke up the fever had broke and she asked for some "mac n cheese". Amazingly we bypassed the flu but over the next few days we started noticing her balance was off. She gradually got so dizzy and wobbly she couldn't walk well in the morning and after nap. She asked to be carried, grabbed on to the wall for balance, and swayed back and fourth when she was sitting, often catching herself off balance. She was irritable and tired much of the day. As you can imagine we were very worried. Three doctors appointments later (no ear infection) including one with a pediatric neurologist (who dropped the words "brain tumor" on us) we didn't have a diagnosis but a few ideas, and were told to observe her over the weekend. This past weekend Addie's balance improved. She only complains of being wiggly here and there. This evening she was running and dancing and walking in her dress-up high heels (great sign since those things would stump the Philippines' own Imelda Marcos). Our follow up with the neurologist on Monday gave us good news that she wouldn't need an MRI since she was improving. Most likely what she was experiencing was cerebellitis. This is a post-viral inflammation of the cerebellum. It's fairly common is children under 3. Most common after the chicken pox virus (not what Addie had). There is no treatment because the inflammation goes away within a few weeks (luckily in our case it's dissipating quickly). There are no long term effects. We were very nervous parents, it was hard to describe to the doctors that what we were seeing in her was a wobbly gait. They saw a two year old walking a bit clumsily. With some persistence we saw the right doctor and are very pleased to see our baby girl improving. On Monday when she was asleep with the fever I was in tears about the impending flu in our home and the possibility of Bella contracting the nasty virus. We looked at our sweet girl on the couch and commented to each other that we hated seeing her sick, even with a fever, and we hoped to God we would never have to experience anything worse than the common childhood illnesses with either of our girls. Neither of us knew at that moment that the words "cerebellatis and brain tumor" would be apart of our vocab in a few days time. Thankfully our prayers have been answered and she's back to her cheerful, silly, active self.

Addie after the fever broke on Monday evening with her "mac n cheese". Still smiling.

Addie today with her pink smoothie.