What a whirlwind....
It feels as if I have not posted in weeks although it has only been days. I don't even really know where to start because I am not sure exactly where I left off. I will do my best to not make this drawn out!
Let me see.........
Took Autumn to the doctor on Thursday and she tested positive for strep. She had just completed 10 days of amoxicillan for her ear infection. They put her on zithromax for 5 days to treat the strep and sent us home. This seems the best place to start.
Friday morning.
Autumn woke up crying and telling me she was tickling (itching) all over. I looked at her and her rash looked horrible. I went to Walmart and grabbed some oatmeal bath stuff.
Autumn seemed to be enjoying the bath. For the first time that day, she wasn't crying. By the time she got out of the bath though, her feet (toes, ankles, knees, wrists and fingers) were turning purple. The thing about this picture is that it doesn't really give you a good idea of how swollen her ankles became.
Once out of the bath, Autumn could barely even walk. I called our doctor's office and spoke to the nurse. This was at 1 pm. I told her that they diagnosed Autumn with strep the day before, but her rash was very bad and I thought she needed to be seen. She told me to come in at 3 pm. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't get in sooner, but it is what it is. I called your mom and just burst into tears. She came right over to the house.
Your mom looked Autumn over and agreed we needed to go to the doctor, but she seemed very calm. We were both thinking that they would likely give Autumn some sort of shot and send us home.
When we got to Dr Iris' office, the student looked Autumn over for about a minute and left and came immediately back with Dr Iris. The doctor looked Autumn over quite well. She started explaining to me that it is difficult to tell sometimes whether Autumn's rash was a result of an allergic reaction to her medication or if the virus was causing this reaction. She said that she felt pretty confident it was a drug allergy. She then very calmly tells me that we need to go over to Columbus Regional Hospital, there is a bed waiting for Autumn. She said Autumn needed to be hospitalized.
I was completely stunned. Tears were streaming down my face, but no words were coming from my mouth. I looked over at your mom and she looked completely stunned too. We left. Drove straight over to the hospital, which is just a few minutes away and Autumn was immediately checked in.
They gave her a dose of something (I cannot remember what) and we noticed some quick changes in Autumn's rash. Here you can see that her feet are still swollen. It is hard to see the purple for some reason, but if you look around her knees, those spots that look like bruises are not bruises at all.
We had to get an IV put in, which as you know, Autumn was not a fan of. I did very good with that this time. I did not cry at all while they were sticking Autumn. The charge nurse collapsed the first vein they hit and when she pulled the needle out, I very calmly told her that she had one more shot, that I wasn't going to allow her to poke Autumn again, so make it count. Success! Autumn told that nurse that, "this is not very much fun." I think they heard her all the way down on the first floor. Once the IV was in, I began to cry. A LOT.
We got all settled into our room. I left for a bit to take Millie home and grab some things. Autumn stayed with your mom and dad. On the way home, Millie fell asleep, so I called Miss Angie and told her that I needed help. I needed someone to sit at the house with Millie until your mom/dad could get there.
Alice (my Sunday school teachers wife) lives in our neighborhood and was there in like ten minutes. I left and got right back to the hospital. Autumn looked even better than she had before. They were giving her a steroid, tylenol, motrin, zantac, and benadryl. She was getting something every few hours. Each time after she got the steroid though, we noticed huge improvements with her rash.
This was my horrible bed!! HA I think I may have slept for about two hours.
Autumn fell asleep around ten pm. She would wake up off and on through the night and tell me about the itching. The next morning,
She was ready to go for a "walk". The hospital had little wagons you could ride in.
Fish kisses.
Around 830 am, the doctor came to see us. The blood work results had not come in yet. He said that likely it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. He said that since her rash had improved so much, the purple was gone, the swelling was way down that we could continue this course of treatment at home.
He told me that if she started to turn purple again, we needed to call back right away.
You can see here where they marked her rashes at, there isn't any spreading of those spots and they looked like they were clearing up. You can also tell that new spots were popping up on her legs, but the medication was treating it very quickly.
I was happy there were no more purple knees.
The official diagnosis? Erythema Multiforme. All her paperwork now says she is allergic to amoxicillan.
At 1 pm, we finally made it out of there.
It took me several hours to get all of Autumn's medications together. I went to Ft Benning first and they did not have all of the ones we needed. I had to go some where else to get the steroid, which is probably the most important medication. When I got home at 5 pm from that, I gave her all of them (since her last dose was at 10 am in the hospital). About 20 minutes later, I saw that the tops of Autumn's feet, her wrists and her knees were turning purple again. I called the doctors office and was immediately put through to the doctor who treated/released her at the hospital. He told me to expect some flare ups over the next 7 to 10 days. He said she may start turning purple again, but as long as she can walk, not to worry about it. He also told me to watch for lesions in her mouth. If she started limping again or had any lesions in her mouth, I was to go straight to the ER.
Autumn goes through bouts of very intense itching. I am told that this could last for the next 3 to 4 months. I hope that is not true. Now, several days later, that is her biggest complaint. We are still observing the rash coming and going and the purple coming and going, but no swelling and no pain in the joints this time. I am feeling a little worried about what will happen when the steroid treatment is over (tomorrow night will be the last dosage of that).
Today I am also trying to cut the benadryl amount in half. The girl is so moody and I think it is because of the benadryl. She wants to run and play, but she gets so worn out.
My mom was here. She just left this afternoon and while I'm glad she came, I couldn't believe she brought so many of my nieces. She brought three of them and two of them were sick. I don't know why she thought that was a good idea. I don't want to sound like an ungrateful person at all because I was so glad when my mom told me she was coming, but I think this situation warranted not having other sick children around.
Since being home from the hospital, Autumn has not been able to rest the way she should either.
I won't go on about that right now, but I think you get my general drift.
Anyway, I sort of look back over this weekend and think, how on earth did we make it through that relatively unscathed? I have no idea.
What I currently worry about is more long term.
1. How long will the itching last?
2. Was/is there any joint damage?
3. How long will it take to get the antibiotic out of her system? She was on it for ten full days.
4. When will she stop turning purple and why shouldn't that concern me? Why does she turn purple still, days after having stopped the antibiotic and being released from the hospital.
I just looked Autumn over and she still has purple on her feet. Her left foot in particular and it was the one that was extremely swollen and caused her to not be able to walk on Friday.
So that is it for now. Just writing this all out exhausted me!
I need to go and lay down and then get to cleaning. I should tell you that Millie is now coughing and has stuff leaking from her eye. I think she is getting a cold and hopefully not pink eye.
I love you and miss you and want you to come home now!
Your current wife and favorite airman. xoxo
The count: 118 and 87 days of pure survival mode.
Let me see.........
Took Autumn to the doctor on Thursday and she tested positive for strep. She had just completed 10 days of amoxicillan for her ear infection. They put her on zithromax for 5 days to treat the strep and sent us home. This seems the best place to start.
Friday morning.
Autumn woke up crying and telling me she was tickling (itching) all over. I looked at her and her rash looked horrible. I went to Walmart and grabbed some oatmeal bath stuff.
Autumn seemed to be enjoying the bath. For the first time that day, she wasn't crying. By the time she got out of the bath though, her feet (toes, ankles, knees, wrists and fingers) were turning purple. The thing about this picture is that it doesn't really give you a good idea of how swollen her ankles became.
Once out of the bath, Autumn could barely even walk. I called our doctor's office and spoke to the nurse. This was at 1 pm. I told her that they diagnosed Autumn with strep the day before, but her rash was very bad and I thought she needed to be seen. She told me to come in at 3 pm. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't get in sooner, but it is what it is. I called your mom and just burst into tears. She came right over to the house.
Your mom looked Autumn over and agreed we needed to go to the doctor, but she seemed very calm. We were both thinking that they would likely give Autumn some sort of shot and send us home.
When we got to Dr Iris' office, the student looked Autumn over for about a minute and left and came immediately back with Dr Iris. The doctor looked Autumn over quite well. She started explaining to me that it is difficult to tell sometimes whether Autumn's rash was a result of an allergic reaction to her medication or if the virus was causing this reaction. She said that she felt pretty confident it was a drug allergy. She then very calmly tells me that we need to go over to Columbus Regional Hospital, there is a bed waiting for Autumn. She said Autumn needed to be hospitalized.
I was completely stunned. Tears were streaming down my face, but no words were coming from my mouth. I looked over at your mom and she looked completely stunned too. We left. Drove straight over to the hospital, which is just a few minutes away and Autumn was immediately checked in.
They gave her a dose of something (I cannot remember what) and we noticed some quick changes in Autumn's rash. Here you can see that her feet are still swollen. It is hard to see the purple for some reason, but if you look around her knees, those spots that look like bruises are not bruises at all.
We had to get an IV put in, which as you know, Autumn was not a fan of. I did very good with that this time. I did not cry at all while they were sticking Autumn. The charge nurse collapsed the first vein they hit and when she pulled the needle out, I very calmly told her that she had one more shot, that I wasn't going to allow her to poke Autumn again, so make it count. Success! Autumn told that nurse that, "this is not very much fun." I think they heard her all the way down on the first floor. Once the IV was in, I began to cry. A LOT.
We got all settled into our room. I left for a bit to take Millie home and grab some things. Autumn stayed with your mom and dad. On the way home, Millie fell asleep, so I called Miss Angie and told her that I needed help. I needed someone to sit at the house with Millie until your mom/dad could get there.
Alice (my Sunday school teachers wife) lives in our neighborhood and was there in like ten minutes. I left and got right back to the hospital. Autumn looked even better than she had before. They were giving her a steroid, tylenol, motrin, zantac, and benadryl. She was getting something every few hours. Each time after she got the steroid though, we noticed huge improvements with her rash.
This was my horrible bed!! HA I think I may have slept for about two hours.
Autumn fell asleep around ten pm. She would wake up off and on through the night and tell me about the itching. The next morning,
She was ready to go for a "walk". The hospital had little wagons you could ride in.
Fish kisses.
Around 830 am, the doctor came to see us. The blood work results had not come in yet. He said that likely it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. He said that since her rash had improved so much, the purple was gone, the swelling was way down that we could continue this course of treatment at home.
He told me that if she started to turn purple again, we needed to call back right away.
You can see here where they marked her rashes at, there isn't any spreading of those spots and they looked like they were clearing up. You can also tell that new spots were popping up on her legs, but the medication was treating it very quickly.
I was happy there were no more purple knees.
The official diagnosis? Erythema Multiforme. All her paperwork now says she is allergic to amoxicillan.
At 1 pm, we finally made it out of there.
It took me several hours to get all of Autumn's medications together. I went to Ft Benning first and they did not have all of the ones we needed. I had to go some where else to get the steroid, which is probably the most important medication. When I got home at 5 pm from that, I gave her all of them (since her last dose was at 10 am in the hospital). About 20 minutes later, I saw that the tops of Autumn's feet, her wrists and her knees were turning purple again. I called the doctors office and was immediately put through to the doctor who treated/released her at the hospital. He told me to expect some flare ups over the next 7 to 10 days. He said she may start turning purple again, but as long as she can walk, not to worry about it. He also told me to watch for lesions in her mouth. If she started limping again or had any lesions in her mouth, I was to go straight to the ER.
Autumn goes through bouts of very intense itching. I am told that this could last for the next 3 to 4 months. I hope that is not true. Now, several days later, that is her biggest complaint. We are still observing the rash coming and going and the purple coming and going, but no swelling and no pain in the joints this time. I am feeling a little worried about what will happen when the steroid treatment is over (tomorrow night will be the last dosage of that).
Today I am also trying to cut the benadryl amount in half. The girl is so moody and I think it is because of the benadryl. She wants to run and play, but she gets so worn out.
My mom was here. She just left this afternoon and while I'm glad she came, I couldn't believe she brought so many of my nieces. She brought three of them and two of them were sick. I don't know why she thought that was a good idea. I don't want to sound like an ungrateful person at all because I was so glad when my mom told me she was coming, but I think this situation warranted not having other sick children around.
Since being home from the hospital, Autumn has not been able to rest the way she should either.
I won't go on about that right now, but I think you get my general drift.
Anyway, I sort of look back over this weekend and think, how on earth did we make it through that relatively unscathed? I have no idea.
What I currently worry about is more long term.
1. How long will the itching last?
2. Was/is there any joint damage?
3. How long will it take to get the antibiotic out of her system? She was on it for ten full days.
4. When will she stop turning purple and why shouldn't that concern me? Why does she turn purple still, days after having stopped the antibiotic and being released from the hospital.
I just looked Autumn over and she still has purple on her feet. Her left foot in particular and it was the one that was extremely swollen and caused her to not be able to walk on Friday.
So that is it for now. Just writing this all out exhausted me!
I need to go and lay down and then get to cleaning. I should tell you that Millie is now coughing and has stuff leaking from her eye. I think she is getting a cold and hopefully not pink eye.
I love you and miss you and want you to come home now!
Your current wife and favorite airman. xoxo
The count: 118 and 87 days of pure survival mode.
Comments