Sunday, December 7, 2008

My Daughter Came Alive During Her High Fever

The other night my daughter's fever spiked to 104.7 after being diagnosed with an ear infection. We gave her a fever reducer, got her fever down to 102.5 but were still worried. Yet, the 102+ fever brought about something amazing. As Aleks crawled in bed with us at 2am, she started chatting away. Although Aleks' speech has been improving with speech therapy, she still struggles with her vocabulary and comprehension. That night at 2am she wasn't struggling. In fact it felt like she had just awoken from a coma and had so much to tell us. She was talking about school, her books, her babysitters dog and what was it's name. Her pronoun use was correct and words she has never said before were flying out of her mouth. Both Bill and I turned on the lights and just watched her talk. She couldn't say enough and seemed to have so much to tell us. Bill looked at me at one point and said, "What is going on?". That's when I remembered in my research that I had read about a fever phenomenon.

The sad part of this is that once the fever was back to normal so was my little girl's autism. It almost seems like it was a dream, but then it happened again last night. Her fever spiked to 104.7 and she was lethargic and miserable. The fever got down to 102.4 and she started chatting again. My friend Sandy came over to check on her after I called her in a panic and witnessed it too. Aleks was affectionate, chatting and overall just happy. This morning that little girl is gone. Her fever left, her sickness (ear infection and a viral infection) is still here and the chatty happy little girl is also gone. I told my husband that it seems like a cruel joke. I love his answer, that maybe it is a glimpse of things to come. That is what I am now holding onto. What I have learned is that my little girl is still trapped inside and wants to come out. This has renewed all my efforts to find her healing formula and get her out of the demon grips of autism.

Faith, Hope & Healing~
Melissa

3 comments:

Halle said...

You can rejoice to know that she is "in there" just waiting for all the right pieces to be put into place.

We have went from a non-verbal two hour long tantruming 2yr old to a 5yr year old that was so scary we and his doctor feared for our safety to now a 3rd grader that is completely mainstreamed and even has been elected to student council by his classmates.

Keep the faith...you are very strong. The road may seem long at times but it is so rewarding to see the changes that come from your hard work and dedication.

Erinamondo said...

We just went through this the other day with our daughter.. So strange, it gives you so much hope and then yanks it away. I wonder why this is not studied in depth. I went digging and found that some believe fevers can cause various diseases, and there are safe ways to induce fevers. Wonder if over time it could heal autism? Just a thought..

Erinamondo said...

We just went through this the other day with our daughter.. So strange, it gives you so much hope and then yanks it away. I wonder why this is not studied in depth. I went digging and found that some believe fevers can cause various diseases, and there are safe ways to induce fevers. Wonder if over time it could heal autism? Just a thought..