Some of you may know that a little over a year ago, Mason started a series of regular fevers that plagued him and us for several months. They would occur about every 21 days and their origin was always a mystery. Each episode was more stressful than the previous, and the fevers, which would hover at 105 degrees, lasted for about 5-7 days. In the fall of this past year, we finally realized there was a pattern to the fevers and accompanying mouth sores. After hitting a dead end with our pediatrician, we were referred to a regional children's hospital. After much bloodwork, we were relieved to find it was nothing serious, but we came away with a possible diagnosis, PFAPA, an acronym for a type of periodic fever syndrome, something we were told he would eventually outgrow.
So we came home with a revisit scheduled for 3 months out. This would give us a chancve to let him cycle a few more times and take more notes. Luckily for us, he skipped a cycle and the only one to follow that was much milder. We went to our next apppointment and we were told that they may be tapering off, let's not treat at this time and if they start up again, call us. Okay. We were relieved to not have to choose a treatment, as we didn't like any of them, (the most common being a steroid).
Since April, Mason has had one additional cycle, once again very mild. We still believe his body goes through the cycle, as we see him get slightly lethargic still, sometimes gets the mouth sores, and like clockwork, gets crabby on the same fevering cycle he had been experiencing.
For now, we are just hoping it does not rear it's ugly head again.
I was prompted to post this today as the Washington Post ran an article about a family dealing with PFAPA.
Click to read the Washington Post article! (I have been tweaking this post, as the link has been acting funny, should work: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/20/AR2008062002501.html
Please pray that Mason stays fever free!
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