Caleb had his one year check-up on Tuesday, October 29th and received several vaccines (MMR, varicella, flu, and another one that I can't remember right now). Aside from a few tears during and immediately after the shots, Caleb did fine. No fever or other issues... until Sunday, November 3rd. He sounded a little congested Sunday morning and a little "hoarse" when he cried. He took a brief nap before church, and he also took a nap in the church nursery. The nap at church isn't abnormal but definitely strange since he had napped before church too. At lunch, he refused to eat and was very irritable. Brad and I took turns holding him, and eventually, he fell asleep. Nap #3 before 2:00pm. Caleb's pediatrician is a partner at two pediatric after hours clinics in OKC, so I called both to see if she was working that day. She wasn't, but we decided to go ahead and take him to the location closest to our house. The triage nurse thought he had croup, but I knew he didn't. He had croup before, and this was definitely not the same thing. The doctor said his throat was very red and swollen. He tested negative for strep, so she said it was probably a virus.
The sore throat, hoarse cry, and irritability continued for a few more days, accompanied with very restless nights and a low-grade fever. On Wednesday, Nov 6th, a rash appeared on his torso. Brad called the pediatrician's office and spoke with a nurse (not Caleb's regular nurse). She said "That's his MMR reaction." She said it would run its course in a few days and to give him Tylenol to keep him comfortable. The rash spread to his arms and legs the next day, so I called the nurse again. She still insisted it was a reaction to the MMR. No mention of a possible virus.
By Sunday, Nov 10th, he started feeling a little better. The rash started going away, and he hadn't had a fever for a couple days. Even though he was improving, I took him to the pediatrician's office on Monday, Nov 11th. Caleb's hand surgery pre-op appointment was scheduled for the next day, and I wanted to make sure the pediatrician thought he'd be okay for surgery the following week. She examined him and said that she couldn't say for sure if it was a reaction or a virus. Since his throat was fine and the rash was going away, she diagnosed him with an "improving virus" and said he'd be fine for surgery.
It's been 2.5 weeks since Caleb received his vaccine, and it's been almost two weeks since symptoms appeared. He seems to be feeling fine and is back to sleeping 11-12 hours each night (thank goodness!). We don't know for sure if Caleb had a reaction to the MMR vaccine or a virus, but all of his symptoms do line up with what we've read online about MMR reactions. Who knows.
I don't blame Caleb's pediatrician for the vaccine recommendation she gave us, and we don't regret the decisions we made based on the info we had at the time. We don't know yet how we'll approach his vaccines in the future, but we've got time to figure that out. For now, we're trying to catch up on lost sleep and prepare for Caleb's hand surgery on Monday.
