Wednesday, October 20, 2010

For the love of hives.

I called my mother-in-law last night to warn her about the rash situation.  When K- goes to hang with them on Tuesday and Wednesday, my mother-in-law readies her for bed by having her get a bath, changed over to jammies and whatnot.  I didn't want her to go into rashland unprepared. 

I almost always call when I know that they arrive home just to check in with K- to see how her day was.  My mother-in-law expressed concern about the rash.  She was talking to me about calling the doctors office, so I did.

Bless her heart.  I got the nurse, Kathy, who I kind of flipped out on at this same time last year over K- having H1N1.  At that point, the office wasn't seeing those patients, as the protocol was to have them try to get over it themselves.  If there was any residual, they would see patients that seemed to backslide after they appeared better.  I was panicked and ended up telling her that she had just shoved us out to sea on a ship with no help.  When I came in the next week and K- ended up having gone into clinical pneumonia, I apologized for my being stressed out.  The doctor brought it up to me and I apologized to her.  I didn't scream or swear, but I wasn't as nice as I could have been.  104 F with a sick child can do that to a sleepless mother.

Kathy has apparently forgiven me.  She was so sweet.  The diagnosis?  Hives.  We don't know the originator, but we do know that heat makes them bloom in color.  They aren't numbering anymore and had actually decrease significantly from the first night to the first waking morning. 

I told her, "Kathy, whenever I've brought her in for a rash, you guys have told me . . ." she finished my sentence, "That it was viral." 

"Yup." 

She said that most times, they can't actually give a name to a rash.  She confirmed the sit and wait routine.  K- has no fever, her cough that started Saturday is much, much better and the rash hasn't gone anywhere else than it's original surface area.  She said to re-evaluate at the end of the week.  She's fine to continue to function as she is. 

I've sent K- to school with tights, but will be sending her in leggings-type shorts underneath.  I just don't want anyone to freak out at the sight of the ink-blotty hive thing she has going on.  I did speak to the mother of one of K-'s friends just to clue her in on what's going on, but her daughter has been battling a skin condition on her face for the last month.  She said that she completely understands. 

So, we're still battling the skin funk.  We've skipped lotion this evening.  (I tried the Aveeno Overnight Itch cream.)  I've also had her wear her little bike shorts to bed, thinking that if her legs aren't stuck together all night long, maybe that will help.  I also hit her with an evening dose of Benedryl.  Rrrrrr. 

Smiles in my day:
-  Starting to put a dent into Christmas transportation at work.
-  Taking my niece's Flat [Stanley] to school with us this morning, then on to work with me.  I hope that it all works out well!

Have a great day!

4 comments:

Rach said...

Oh, poor K! I have had hives a number of times and they are so itchy awful. :o( Stress is a big trigger for me.

I hope the anti-itch stuff keeps working and the Benedryl as well.

Bailey's Leaf said...

What's funny is that I had her wear shorts to bed and did not put lotion on her and you could hardly see the hives there.

Who knows?

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

It went around our school. Three boys in J's class had the "mystery hives". They came for no reason and stayed for a while and left. One boy took Benadryl for over a week but the hives never left. That's when I told the mom I was pretty sure they were viral and unless the Benadryl was giving some relief it really wasn't necessary. It took us 5 days to figure out that it was "something". We were standing around the parking lot one day and say "S has it, JV has it,... " and then someone said "OH, S.O. has it too". Well the light bulb finally went off that it's something being passed around [we're quick that way] -but nothing to worry about. The kids kept going to school and birthday parties and what not. It's finally gone now. I hope K feels better soon!!

Bailey's Leaf said...

Good to know. Honestly, it was the weirdest thing. Just on the thighs and a 50 cent piece size on the connective part between the upper foot and leg. It seems to have left, but now we have a sore outer ear. Weird, I know, but brought K- to tears. She's talked about it for a few days, but I just thought she slept on it hard. We see just a little bit of a pimple in there and can see how that could be terribly sore. I used some Witch Hazel on it and have finally resorted to Advil.

That hive thing still has me shaking my head. No fever. No real reason to keep her from functioning. Huh. Thanks for providing some more info on mystery hives!