Jack was prescribed amoxicillin for his ear infection. He took his last dose Wednesday morning. When I put him in the bath Wednesday night, he had a bunch of weird spots all over his belly, legs, arms, and armpits. They looked like chicken pox. I called the on-call doctor from our pediatricians office, sent her a picture, and she called us back suggesting that it was probably the same virus that caused the ear infection (and goopy eyes) that was now manifesting itself as a rash. She said it would probably be ok, but to follow up with the doctor the next day if it got any worse.
Here is his belly on the night of Day #1.
I checked on him several times throughout the night and kept looking at his skin with a flashlight. It seemed like they were about the same, if not better, so I decided to go ahead and go to school.
The flashlight must have lied, though, because when he actually woke up, they had spread. We drugged him up and took him to school anyway. Luckily it was the day I actually had a prep period, so I taught one class and then went to check on him. It seemed to be spreading like crazy and had changed forms quite a bit from the night before. I called the doctor's office, talked to a nurse, and then made an appointment to bring him in. I rushed to put some sub plans together and find someone to cover my classes, then got Jack and headed to the doctor. Our regular pediatrician doesn't work on Thursdays so we met with Dr. Barr, who actually checked Jack out in the hospital when he was born.
She said it was quite the case of hives and that it was most likely a reaction to the amoxicillan which could come on during any point while taking it or even after. She also checked his ears and found that his left ear was still infected. Great! She prescribed a new antibiotic and then just told us to keep him on Benadryl and ibuprofen.
Here is his belly on the afternoon of Day #2.
Once we got everything we needed (including a coke and fries from Wendy's a half hour detour sitting in the shade of Sugarhouse Park while Jack took a nap), we headed back to get Molly and go home. He seemed fine. He played around as usual with Molly and was pretty much his normal self. We gave him a bath and then headed to the grocery store because we needed a few things.
He totally melted at the store. We realized that picking him up and moving him from home to car seat to store, etc. was making him miserable. He didn't want you touching his belly or lifting him up by his armpits. James ended up taking him back to the car, while Molly and I finished getting the things we needed.
The doctor said he was fine. James said he was fine. We just needed to keep the drugs in him. We decided to try school again (mainly because the mother - who has extreme guilty mom syndrome about now - has missed 4 days in the last 3 weeks). The ladies at school are so wonderful and were totally fine to take care of him. In fact, one lady said it would be nice to have him in his benadryl-induced zombie state because he wouldn't be running around crazy as usual.
I went to check on him during my lunch (because I didn't have a prep period today) and he had had a pretty good morning, but after lunch was pretty uncomfortable. They had re-drugged him, but he just wouldn't sleep in his bed or relax without someone holding him. I sat with him for about 20 minutes and then had to leave both of them (Molly, of course, needed attention too) whimpering at me to go back to one more class (as if the guilty mom syndrome had not been bad enough).
Anyway, after school he was still struggling and was walking kind of funny. We stopped for Frosty's on the way home to try and help us all be better, which they did. Then, I decided that maybe a coolish bath would help. Jack sat in the bath for a good 45 minutes and played. He seemed pretty comfortable in there, though I did get the full extent of his hives, inlcuding his now swollen and purple ankles and wrists that look like someone took a baseball bat to them. Sad boy.
In the bathtub, Day #3
We sent Molly and James to get a pizza with my parents and Annie's family and Jack and I just hung out the rest of the night. I've never seen this kid hold still for such a long stretch of time. He has realized that when he moves, he hurts, so as long as I kept him relatively entertained, he just sat on the couch most of the night until he fell asleep.
It seems to have stopped spreading around and they seem to be either fading or turning purple (which I guess leads to fading). Hopefully tomorrow brings a little bit less discomfort than today for this little squirt.
