Here's what happened in a nutshell:
Scarlett started having typical cold symptoms (cough, runny nose) the night of Sunday September 11 and through the next day. She had no fever and otherwise seemed fine. The morning of Tuesday September 13 she was a bit sluggish and stuffy. She didn't have much of an appetite that day and took a four hour nap that afternoon. Still no fever, and no symptoms that indicated anything other than that she had a cold. Later that evening, however, Scarlett became extremely lethargic and started breathing quickly. After a call to our pediatrician's after-hours line, we decided to take her to the children's emergency room at Medical City.
The next 24 hours were a blur. Scarlett was admitted to the Pediatric ICU where it was determined that she had (a) rhinovirus (the common cold); and (b) Rhabdomyolysis (rapid breakdown of the skeletal muscle tissue). The big risk with Rhabdomyolysis is kidney and/or liver failure. Her kidney levels in particular were sky-high, and dialysis seemed imminent. Scarlett was sedated, a breathing tube was inserted (and later a feeding tube as well), she started receiving lots of intravenous hydration to flush her system, and her blood was drawn and tested around the clock to try to determine what was going on and how her body was responding. Needless to say, it was terrifying. After several days, she became less highly critical, but was still very, very sick and ended up having to stay in the PICU for a total of ten days, followed by 4 days on the regular pediatric floor.
The combination of being sedated and bed-ridden for two weeks and the assault her muscles suffered from the Rhabdomyolysis left Scarlett very weak and unable to walk, sit up, or even swallow solid foods. Fortunately, despite the severity of her illness and the incredibly high numbers that her blood work showed during the height of her illness, she did not suffer liver or kidney damage and dialysis was avoided. After she was discharged from Medical City, she moved over to Our Children's House at Baylor where they continued to monitor her medically and also provided daily physical and occupational therapy. She was treated at OCH for two weeks, and finally came home after exactly one month of being in the hospital.
While she was at Medical City and still in the throes of the Rhabdomyolysis, they removed some muscle tissue from her thigh for testing to try to determine what caused the entire incident. All of the results so far have come back negative for an underlying metabolic (i.e. genetic) cause, although there are a handful of results still outstanding. If all of the results come back negative, we will be left with the conclusion that everything was caused by an unusual reaction to a particular strain of the rhinovirus. Given that we are exposed to cold and other viruses all of the time, this is a frightening thought. But the good news is that Scarlett had obviously been exposed to colds before this happened and didn't get critically ill, and in fact the week after she came home from OCH she got a cold and nothing happened other than typical cold symptoms. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that it was a once in a lifetime freak occurrence.
The outpouring of love and support we received from family and friends was nothing short of amazing, and it gave such comfort to Chris and I as we struggled to get through the darkest days. Prayers were being said all over the world, including a mass in the Philippines and a prayer inserted into a crack in the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. We feel so incredibly blessed not only that our sweet girl got better but that we have such an incredible network of people who love us.
Here is a picture of Scarlett leaving Our Children's house to come home after the longest month ever.
Scarlett is still doing out-patient physical therapy at OCH and is doing great at home. The only obvious sign that she's not quite 100% is that she's still a bit too weak to make it up and down the stairs at our house by herself, but she's getting stronger every day and is just about back to her old self.
