Campbell Sheridan's bout with COVID-19 appeared to be mild at first.
Her mom, Stacy Sheridan, said the girl had a low-grade fever, a runny nose and a minor cough.
The positive test result came on Jan. 17 and within a few days, Sheridan said she thought her 2-year-old was getting better.
But then little Campbell starting showing a strange symptom. First it was walking around on her tip toes and wanting to be held all the time.
By the end of the day, however, the girl cried every time her mom tried to put her down and wouldn't put any weight on her legs.
Since it was a Sunday night, Sheridan called the doctor on call at her pediatrician's office, who told her it would probably be a good idea to take her daughter to the emergency room at Bryan East Campus to get her checked out.
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She said she initially worried about a COVID-19 complication that has shown to be fairly common in kids: multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
"I was really worried it was the MISC, at first," said Sheridan, who is an emergency room nurse at Bryan.
Lab work done in the ER showed something else entirely. Campbell's liver enzymes and some of her cardiac enzymes were way out of whack. The diagnosis: rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which the body breaks down muscle tissue, which releases proteins into the blood.
The condition, which is more often linked to excessive exercise or crush injuries, can cause serious problems in both the kidneys and liver because they must work extra hard to try to process the excess proteins. It also causes severe muscle pain.
After two days at Bryan without much improvement, and with an orthopedic specialist expressing concern about swelling in Campbell's legs, the decision was made to transfer her to Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.
Sheridan and her husband, Franklin, both had COVID-19 infections at the time and couldn't ride with their daughter in the ambulance to Omaha, which she said was hard.
"It was awful," she said. "And I think me being medical and knowing worst-case scenarios and everything that could happen was the worst because my mind automatically went to the what ifs."
Once Campbell got to Children's, she was treated by a large team of doctors, including Dr. Claire Ives, a pediatric hospitalist.
Ives said that while rhabdomyolysis is a well-known complication of some other viruses, including the flu, it's rare in COVID-19 patients, especially children.
In fact, medical literature has documented only a handful of cases worldwide, most of them in older children and teens.
"Prior to Campbell, I had personally not seen a case of rhabdomyolysis related to COVID-19," Ives said in an email.
She said that parents should definitely have their kids seen by a doctor if they experience pain and swelling in their arms or legs during or after a COVID-19 infection.
While at Children's, Campbell was treated with intravenous fluids to prevent kidney damage and she also had to undergo frequent blood tests to monitor her electrolyte levels, Ives said.
Orthopedic doctors kept a close eye on the swelling in her legs to ensure she didn't develop compartment syndrome, a condition where pressure builds in the tissues and muscles in the limbs, which can require surgery to relieve.
Sheridan provided daily updates on Campbell's ordeal on her Facebook page, and you can see a marked change in the tone of the posts about day five, which would have been her third at Children's.
"Overall, Campbell has had a GREAT day!" she posted on Jan. 28. "She was able to lift both of her legs off of the bed and sit up with some assistance! She even felt up to cuddling with me on the recliner so daddy picked her up and sat her with me."
"Overall she has made leaps and bounds in her progress in the last day and a half," Sheridan wrote.
Three days later, on Jan. 31, the Sheridans were able to take Campbell home.
Sheridan said her daughter has been doing well, other than some weakness in one of her legs that's made it hard to get up and down stairs, but her doctors expect her to make a full recovery with no lasting complications. She does have some follow-up appointments with specialists but won't require any physical therapy.
Sheridan said she decided to tell her family's story because, "I just want to help other kids if we can."
She also praised the care Campbell got at both hospitals, but especially at Children's.
"They made it all to where I could tolerate it," Sheridan said. "I mean, it wasn't an easy eight days, but they (hospital staff) were great."