no "Topical Rash"

One bonus of HAVING to drag all three kids along to the doctor's office for one sore ear is that the professional can peek into the ears of all present. Paige was very vocal last Thursday about an earache. We went in for one and came out with Amoxicillin in hand for both her and Tyler. Two with one stone! (From the color in their ear canals, it looked like Paige's was just 6-7 hours new. Tyler's looked 3-4 days old. Ah, sorry boy. Mom needs to be more on top of your medicine!)

I immediately started them both on the meds. Breakfast and dinner. Twice a day. Six days in, I noticed many small red dots on Tyler's belly and larger patches along his diaper line. By many I mean maybe twenty. Not raised. Not huge. Not itching. But, not normal! Could he be reacting to his meds, even though he has been on it for nearly a week now?

So I call the doctor's office and explain the details. After the receptionist told the nurse, who told the doctor, who told her to tell me the answer...I was told that they figured it was just a topical viral rash. I was "to watch it for 2-5 day." It should go down. Taking their word for it, I went against my gut and agreed to watch it for the next several days.

Well, I didn't even get in a day of observation. The next morning it was far worse. Spread all over! Matt's, "What is this?!?" exclamation when he scooped him out of bed for the day had me on the phone with the doctor's office again by 8:00 AM that morning. Please sneak him in before the long weekend hits. I know this is far worse than just a passing rash!

The three pictures following are how he looked at noon on Friday. It is what the doctor saw. The few spots on Tyler's face alone, even before I took off his shirt, were enough to have the doctor immediately recognizing an allergy to penicillin. The medicine he had been on for the last WEEK!

FRIDAY:

So, I left the office with medicine to treat the medicine.

How frustrating. Glad we caught it. Glad he is showing the rash reaction rather than the alternative struggling-to-breathe reaction. It wasn't until after the fact that I was told that my dad, aunt, and grandma were allergic to it. Should have checked family medical history? Granted, we wouldn't have known until it got in his system (Paige was on the exact same bottle of stuff this week and didn't react, and I'm pretty positive Meg had had more than just Augmentin). But, it had me questioning what we put in our babes to "help" them.

The next morning, after a second night of holding him for long stretches and having him on Benedryl, he was worse. Heartbreakingly worse. Spot that were pencil-top-small a day before were HUGE splotches. Past red spots were filled with awful grey and purple coloring. Poor babe.

SATURDAY MORNING:

So, I pulled out the additional prescription that doctor gave me "to use if his joints get so swollen he doesn't want to walk or move" and headed to the pharmacy. With hydro-cortizone cream and a steroid prescription in hand, I called my cousin's pharmacist husband and carefully listened to "what he'd do if it were his own child." His suggestion I'm following: use all three...go into an Instacare if it is worse in the morning (Sunday).

The anti-itch cream seemed to help (thank goodness!). I pray the short-term steroid will kick in quick...because below is what we were looking at all of today. Ouch! Painful for me to look at. Itching and hot for him.