Fever, stress, vomit. Life.

True, we might have gotten bored with the same old, same old. I mean profound developmental impairment both physical and cognitive, central fevers, cortical blindness and refractory epilepsy. They might not have kept us on our toes. So, it's understandable that we've now had retching and vomitting added to the mix.

It's been nearly two weeks since those new symptoms debuted. Last week's exam by the pediatrician didn't explain them so we did blood tests on Monday. We also consulted by email with the neurologist..

The pediatrician - who has kindly acquiesced to keeping C. on despite her nearly 23 years - thought that perhaps one of C.'s anti-epileptics is the culprit. The one added on last is Vimpat/Lacosamide. I recall that the neurologist who saved her from a near-coma during her last hospitalization said then that her Vimpat dosage was too high. But he ultimately left that unchanged because she recovered just by his removal of several other drugs that the hospital team had been administering her.

But the neurologist treating C. now - a member of the above hospital team - dismisses that theory.

The Hubby and E., the caregiver, are convinced that phlegm is to blame for the vomiting. But I'm not. She just shows no signs of phlegm, doesn't have a runny nose and isn't coughing. Besides, she's never vomited from a cold in the past.

We also emailed the gastro who had prescribed Carnitine to repair her liver when it was damaged by the Valproic Acid medication. She's been taking 250 mg. of it three times a day for over a year. Then this past weekend we went away for 24 hours with the entire family. I forgot to pack in the Carnitine and C. did not seize, vomit or retch the entire time.

So I hoped we'd found the cause. But now, after receiving the gastro's OK to stop carnitine, it's clear that was wishful thinking.

So the mystery of the vomiting remains.

C.'s Central Fevers have also increased in frequency and are stumping everybody as well. Her neurologists don't seem to have experience with them at all. In fact, while C. was last hospitalized one of the doctors posited that we have it all back to front: the seizures are inducing the fever.

Now, that's such a presposterous hypothesis, I can't decide where to begin debunking it. One, C. also has seizures without fever. Two, when she has a fever with seizures, they stop once the fever is lowered. Three, central fevers are a known phenomenon. I didn't invent them. But nobody on the team was listening.

I'm hoping that our neurologist will be able to track down a doctor who is familiar with central fevers. We plan to meet up with her for a face-to-face consult next week, something I'm not eager to do since the last time we spoke, in the hospital, I sensed she wasn't enamored with my ideas. (They tended toward pleading for lowering the meds, asap).

In the meantime, it's just stress, stress and more stress. Here's a self-portrait in the works that illustrates that.