The Story of The Rash

Poor Ryan has been sick a lot lately. He seems to have a constant ear infection & on top of that he got a little cold a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't anything major, but he had just finished a 10 day round of antibiotics for a double ear infection that, as it turns out, did nothing for the ears so I took him back in and they gave him a different antibiotic, augmentin, for another 10 days. It seemed to help the ears but on day 9 of the 10 days (Tues) we noticed he had some pretty bad hives all over when he woke up from his nap. I had fed him some new food with strawberries & pineapple in it so we thought that must have been it. We gave him some benadryl and by the next morning (Wed) they were pretty much gone. Then when he woke up from his afternoon nap on Wed they were back & seemed to be really itchy. At this point we figured it probably wasn't the food since he hadn't had any more & maybe he was allergic to the antibiotic (I am & so are some of my family members). At that point I figured we'd probably better take him to the dr & let them see so they could know what the reaction was like with the antibiotic. Here is what he looked like Wed night when I took him in to the dr.

 The dr said they thought it was a delayed reaction to the antibiotic but since he was finished with it we should just make sure he didn't get that one again & continue the benadryl & the hives should go away in a day or so. The next morning (Thurs) he still had a few hives on his neck & his poor little ears were VERY swollen. I just kept giving benadryl, but they kept coming back. Here's his poor ear in Thurs morning.

 Despite all the regular doses of benadryl the hives were not only not going away, but seemed to be spreading and getting worse. He was beyond miserable and was itching constantly. By Thurs night he was completely covered & it looked even worse than before. I determined that if he still looked this bad when he woke up on Fri I was going to take him back in. Here is what he looked like by Thurs night.

 He woke up Friday morning looking even worse. It was hard to even find a spot that didn't have a hive & the benadryl only seemed to help for the first hour or two & even then it only made it less itchy & red so I took him to the dr first thing Fri morning. Here is what he looked like Fri about an hour after giving benadryl.

 This time when we went to the dr he took one look and said he knew what it was & it wasn't an allergic reaction at all. It turns out that it was his body reacting to the virus he'd had. It wasn't even part of the virus, it was just the way his body reacted to it. He said you could tell because they looked like a target & were already starting to spread out & join together. (Ugh! More drama from this kid.) Unfortunately there also wasn't anything we could do but let it run it's course. He prescribed a steroid (he was also wheezing) & told me to keep up the benadryl & that should help him be more comfortable til he got through it. He also said it might get worse because all those spots would eventually spread out & join together to cover his whole body, but that after that happened he would start to get better. I sure was glad he prepared me for that cause by that night it had done just that and he was like one big red hive from head to toe. Thankfully by Sat morning it started to get better. It wasn't as raised and the redness was starting to ease up a little. This is what he looked like on Sat morning.

 He seemed to be doing so much better by Sat night that we decided not to wake him in the middle of the night to give him another dose of steroid & benadryl. Sun morning we woke up and the poor little thing was pretty covered in the rash again & his little eyes were almost swollen shut. I felt so bad. I stayed home from church with him & got him dosed up regularly on steroid & benadryl & by that night he was doing much better. Here is what he looked like Sun morning.

By Mon morning he looked almost completely back to normal with the exceptions of a few red spots on his face & scalp, but he was like a whole new kid. I'm just glad we all survived it. Once again this little guy is keeping us on our toes. Good thing he's so stinkin' adorable!