, diagnosed with at age 3 in 1997, now age 11

March 15, 2006

Hi, my name is Dana Brown. I have an 11 year old son named .

At aged 2 to 2.5 I started noticing a pattern to his illness. I had

taken him to the Dr. for like 5 months in a row for him to say...

it's only a virus it will have to run it's course. I called him

back after this 5th time and said something must be up and this

can't be normal. They had done no blood work to prove his viral

theory, etc... I was VERY upset. He looked back at 's chart

and also recognized a pattern. He said it looked like every 37-41

days and he thought it might be . We waited another month and

sure enough at exactly 41 days, got the high fever 105, sore

throat, tiny mouth sores, stomach-ache, - classic symptoms for

. I had never heard of it and this pediatrician had only seen

one other case in the Birmingham, AL area with a girl aged 5. We

went to children's to get bloodwork done and rule out any other

illnesses such as Leukemia, etc... he showed classic signs of

. We gave him the steroids and the fever immediately abated.

Only to cause the fever to come back quicker (or in less than 41

days this time). We tried the Tagamet. Didn't help at all. Even

the usual tylenol, advil, motrin's didn't seem to help reduce the

fever. It was persistent. For 2.5 years to age 5.5 he had a fever

every 41 days. My husband at the time (we're now divorced), and I

had to swap weeks of vacation time alternating each time was

sick. We had to notify his principal of his condition and were

beginning to make arrangements for home tutoring since he'd miss so

much school. The Dr. decided he wanted to try a tonsillectomy and

see if it would work in putting his in to remission. It

worked for . However, I will say that I've noticed a pattern

of illness again and am beginning to chart this on the calendar.

Sunday he had a fever of 103 and is now on day 4. I've noticed this

periodic illness creeping up again, in the last few months, but just

started charting it on the calendar again. I truly hope he isn't

relapsing back in to the . Does anyone know if that is

possible? Can a child relapse back in to after having been in

remission for approximately 5-6 years? God Bless you all. When

was diagnosed MANY years ago, there wasn't anyone to talk

to. I'm so glad to have a family to talk to... thanks.

Recommended Posts