(Above picture Sunday 3:15 PM)

Mothers become fairly proficient at spot removal over the course of time.?? I have even had success removing sharpie marks.?? Yesterday when Tanner looked at me with horrified eyes and said “GET THESE SPOTS OFF ME MOMMY!” – another set of horrified eyes stared back at him – mine!?? The ER Dr. wasn’t even all that successful.

I had to laugh at myself at last weeks posts.?? They were a very poor reflection of my week.?? I had written them a week or two before and had them set to automatically publish.?? Last week was so not fun and it hasn’t quite lost it’s grip on us either.

Last Tuesday night, Tanner came down with the stomach flu virus.?? Jim and I, have for years debated this term because he declares it medically incorrect as often used.?? Whatever.?? You know what I mean.

He was pretty sick Tuesday night but by Wednesday morning was feeling pretty good.?? Thursday he seemed fine.?? Thursday night I got sick.?? I was up every hour during the night.?? I haven’t been that sick in a long while.?? Jim stayed home from work Friday to take care of the kids because I didn’t get out of bed.?? I later learned that Tanner threw up in his bed again Thursday night.?? Jim had to deal with that Friday morning.

By Saturday morning I felt remarkably better but then dived after dinner.?? (I have still not recovered and it is Monday morning and I don’t want to be too far from a bathroom).?? 🙁

Jim, Ty and Tori were (and are) still clear but I was watching them closely.?? Ty kept burping and that is not a good sign so I assumed he was heading for it.?? (He still has a gurgly stomach even this morning but it has not progressed anymore….yet).?? He thought throwing up in the bowl looked really cool so he kept asking for it on Saturday and then would try his hardest to throw up.?? Me thinks he knows not what he was asking for.?? :)?? This also could have been a ploy to get mommy to agree to let him sleep on the couch with me for just in case.?? It worked.?? I sent Tanner to bed and Ty, Tori and I slept in the front room.?? At 1:30 AM on Sunday morning Tanner comes out of his bedroom crying and he tells me that he is going to throw up again.?? (He didn’t). ??You have got to be kidding!!!?? How long can this go on?????? I moved his pillows and blankets to the couch – that now makes 4 little bears in the bed and the big one said “I am crowded!”.?? (Technically 3 bears – Tori was in her bouncer).??

Tanner was driving me crazy.?? He was restless and couldn’t stop moving.?? I was sick and tired and was low on coping skills so instead of trying to investigate I kept telling him to settle down and go to sleep.?? This went on for two hours.?? Finally at about 3:30 he says “Mommy!?? I can’t!?? My feet itch so bad!”?? I then decide I had better check.?? I take him into the dining room, turn on the light and find this:

??Pictures taken at 3:30 AM Sunday morning.

Oh yikes!?? I can’t believe he was just restless considering this.?? Turns out Jim couldn’t sleep either and was on the computer in our bedroom downloading music so he comes out to take a look and we are both pretty speechless.?? I called a 24 hour nurses line and they said that since he wasn’t swelling and he was breathing fine, that we should treat with Benadryl.?? Also called Sweetie at 3:30 AM to collaborate on options.?? I gave him 2 tsps of Benadryl and he fell asleep shortly after that and quit itching.?? We were all super tired and didn’t wake up until 10:30 AM on Sunday.?? At which time, he looked like this:

(Neck was a solid welt – those hive are raised)

(Back a big raised welt)

The good news was, he wasn’t itching.?? Jim and I read Dr. Sears online and everything we read said that hives don’t require a page to the Dr much less urgent care so we decided to keep treating with Benadryl (although I was quickly losing my confidence).?? At first the Benadryl seemed to help.?? The welts became flat and lost some of their color but 3 hours later (before he was due for more Benadryl), they started coming back with a vengeance.?? He started crying and complained his feet were really hurting.?? I rubbed the welts on his feet for awhile and then tried cold packs.?? All the while feeling like this was not a typical case of hives and it seemed to be escalating quickly.?? He begged for medicine earlier than later so I broke down and gave him more benadryl before he was due for it.???? That was at 2:15 PM yesterday.?? AT 3:15 PM – ONE HOUR LATER, he looked like this (imagine this on his whole body):

??

I emailed these pictures to family and everyone agreed – his eyes and lips were swelling – time to go to urgent care.?? David was on a fire so he had yet to see the pictures but I decided I wouldn’t wait for him.?? (David his a firefighter, paramedic, and now on HALO – paramedic for the helicopter). He conveniently called once I was already in the urgent care saying “get the kid an epi shot”.?? :).??

When I got to Mendy’s Place (and I LOVE Mendy’s Place), I was the second patient in line ON A WEEKEND woooohooo!?? They ended up moving him directly to a bed and the nurses were oooohhhhing and ahhhing over his case of spots.?? All agreed we made the right decision to bring him in.?? I brought the above pictures with me so they could see the progression over a 12 hour period.?? I am patting myself on the back for that move because they paid quite a bit more attention to the case realizing this problem was escalating and the evidence was before them.

They gave him an IV, steroids, took blood cultures and gave him an epishot.?? Once he had the epishot he was good as new.?? Within minutes, my little boy was back!?? It was amazing!?? His adrenaline was pumping from the meds so he was giggling away and was so excited that we found something to get the spots off.?? Epipens are the magic erasers of allergic reactions.?? :)?? His excitement was contagious.?? They let us go with the following instructions:?? 3/4 tsp Ranitidine 15mg twice a day (generic Zantac) for 5 days, 2 tsps Benadryl every 6 hours for 5 days, 2 1/2 tsps Prednisolone 15 mg once a day for 5 days.?? They also prescribed two epipens for just in case.?? (You realize by now I am writing all these details for mama’s notes more than your entertainment 🙂 ).?? Tanner did awesome in the ER.?? He was poked with IV needles twice and then the epipen and he never even grimaced.?? The nurses were in love and stated that it was apparent that he was the type of little boy that is a joy to be around every day.?? Oh how true.

I leave the ER with one happy little camper.?? Sweetie insisted I buy him a treat from her so while we were waiting for the meds at Walgreens we went to Jack in the Box to get some dinner.?? It was now about 7:00 PM.?? He was talking away and happy.?? All of a sudden he stops eating and looks at me with big eyes.?? I ask what is wrong and he says the chicken is too hot.?? I accept that.???? Moments later though his eyes start welling and he starts whimpering.?? He refuses to speak and tell me what is wrong.?? I asked him to get up and walk over to me so I could look at him.?? He gives me the deer in the headlight look and starts crying.?? My suspicions are aroused.?? I walk to his side of the table and look down at his arms.?? The spots are reappearing.?? He didn’t want to tell me because he didn’t want to go back to the hospital.?? He was crushed!?? He told me that one bite of chicken did it.?? (It wasn’t the chicken 🙂 ). He was so happy that the drugs had worked and then flung into the pit of despair by their quick reappearance.?? I, am thinking, HOLY COW!?? So I call the ER from Jack in the Box (I have only been gone from there 30 minutes tops) and the Dr. says that the epi shot is wearing off and to take him home and medicate as she prescribed.?? She said to bring him in immediately or call 911 if his facial swelling starts back or if he starts itching really bad.?? The spots waxed and waned after that.?? I gave him another steroid dose at midnight with the zantac and benadryl and he slept well.?? I kept checking on him this morning and he looked really good.?? At about 9:00 AM I??only saw about one spot on his face. ??He didn’t actually wake though until 10:00 and now he looks like this:

Significantly better than yesterday afternoon but his condition changed dramatically in one hour between 9 and 10.?? I have learned this can progress fast so we’ll see.?? He is really paranoid about this and keeps asking me “Mommy are they raising??? Are there more on my back now??? Is my face puffing up yet?”?? (Then he smiles so I can tell if his lips look weird 🙂 ).?? So as of 5 minutes ago, he is getting more spots by the minute and they are welting but hopefully the benedryl and zantac will draw them back down.?? I have an appointment at 1:50 with Tanner’s Dr. to discuss this in greater depth.

Okay so now the obvious question.?? What in the world is this??? Could be a whole host of things.?? The Dr.s best guess is (1).

(1) Rash due to viral infection.?? She believes his illness last week has caused this as sometimes happens in children.?? If that is the case, it may get worse before it gets better.?? As long as we can keep him from the obvious, anaphylactic shock, it should run its course and he’ll be fine.?? I consider this best case scenario and am hoping she is right.?? (She is unsure of her diagnosis by the way and her nurses disagreed – they think option 3).

(2) He is having an allergic reaction to a bite.?? I have checked for insect bite evidence and can’t find any.?? If it were an insect, it seems it would have run its course, especially after the epishot though I have never had an allergic reaction to an insect so maybe the spots hang around?

(3) He is having an allergic reaction to something he ate.?? I HOPE HE DOES NOT HAVE A FOOD ALLERGY!?? This one scares me the most because it means I will likely need those epipens for the next time this happens and the second time is always substantially worse!?? On Saturday, best Jim and I can figure, Tanner ate the following:?? Cookies and Cream Pop Tart for Breakfast and possibly Milk, for lunch he had a Turkey Sub from Subway with nothing new on it, had a PhillySwirl Popsicle in the afternoon.?? Jim gave him a Sunny Delight around lunch.?? For dinner he had Papa John’s Pepperoni Pineapple Pizza.?? I gave him a mixture??of orange juice with Sprite Zero sometime in the evening.?? That is my flu remedy of choice.?? It just pours the life back into you and I dream about it when I have the stomach flu.?? It is a MUST have.?? Everything on this list is familiar to Tanner except for the Sunny D.?? He hasn’t had a lot of Orange Juice and rarely any diet soda so the Orange Juice and Sprite Zero were pretty new as well.?? Other than that, everything else he has had.?? The popsicles are different flavors and he has only had a couple this week.?? I have no idea what flavor he had Saturday.

(4)?? Allergic to something environmental??? Can’t find anything that has changed.

??He looks a little worse now than he did half hour ago when I took the above pictures??and he is 30 minutes into meds.

So to all you mom’s who “know this story”…what do you think??? I am suspecting (1) at the moment because I would think that if he were having an allergic reaction to something specific, the drugs would have curbed it and he wouldn’t keep battling it UNLESS he is still being exposed but I can’t narrow that down.?? I have given him different sheets and clothes as well.?? I am just clueless here.?? He just came in and told me they are making him itch.???? I am having pychosymatic itching at this point as well and I bet several of you will after seeing this pictures!?? Sorry!??

Please pray we figure this out or the viral infection goes away.?? His birthday is Thursday and I will be so sad if he is still miserable.?? This flu is so yucky and I am worried for the rest of my precious family as well.?? I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel yet.??

??Now that I am finally finished with this at 11:12 AM, I can tell that the Benadryl is helping…at least for now.??Ty keeps telling him he looks puffy this morning just to annoy him.?? Love how little brothers play on the paranoia of big brothers.?? :)?? And one other thing…if you think he looks dehydrated – I agree.?? I keep telling him to drink drink drink.?? When he had his IV last night the nurse said he would probably have to go potty pretty quickly.?? That was at about 5:00 PM.?? He didn’t have to go until 11:00 PM.?? Not good.