Roseola

Isabel came down with a mysterious fever on Thursday evening (in the low 102s) and kept it through Sunday evening. It was pretty strange because she didn't really have any other symptoms except for some irritability and extreme tiredness (she was sleeping a solid 14 hrs at night and was back to two long naps during the day). It is a little uncommon for her to hang onto a fever this long even with a virus, so I took her in Monday morning to rule out anything bacterial (ear infection, strep throat, etc.) They did those tests and they came back negative, and her blood work did show that her body was fighting off some sort of a virus. So, the doctor told us to watch the fever for another 48 hrs and to come back if it had not gone away by then. She also told us they had been seeing some roseola (a virus that causes a self-contained, non-irritating rash after the fever and contagious phase has gone away). Well, lo and behold, today when she woke up from her nap, she was sitting on my lap and I peered into the neckline of her dress to find a rash, confirming that it is indeed roseola! It is all over her chest, tummy, and back, but like they said, it is not contagious and really doesn't seem to be bothering her at all. So, at least we know what it is and that it is nothing serious. The research we did said that almost all kids are exposed before age two but not all end up with the fever or rash. Leave it to Isabel to actually GET the fever and rash and scare her mommy a little before we knew what it was! I just hope it goes away before her photo session this Saturday!