A Rough Couple Days

Tuesday this week Aaron spend the day outside with me working and as I bathed him that night I noticed a few spots on his lower back. I didn't give it much attention as he struggles with warts, mulluscum, and can fall prey to skin issues. Well, he came to our bed in the night and was very restless. I noticed him scratching his head. When he followed me out of bed a little after 6:00 I noticed red skin peering out the top of his shirt, into his scalp, and some on his face.






This is what I found when I lifted his shirt. We gave the miserable feeling little guy some Benedryl. He slept for several more hours and when he awoke the rash was no better.



This is what he looked like later that morning.



Before I took him into his 2:00 appt the rash had crept around to the front of his his chest and he had some swelling developing in his forehead. At this point I was checking his throat to make sure none of the reaction was happening internally. Thank the Lord it wasn't. His sister very lovingly referred to him as looking a little like Frankenstein (not in his presence of course).




So the verdict at this point was two-fold, poison ivy and a possible staph or strep infection in one of his mulluscum spots (seen below). The doctor lanced the wound and a bunch of thick green junk came out. Aaron was of course not at all pleased with this procedure or what he saw coming out of his leg. We went home on Zyrtec for the allergic reaction, Augmentum for the infection, Tylenol for the fever, and a topical steroid to help with the itching. We were told to watch to make sure the cellulitis around the wound did not spread and to come back if it did and if he continued with a fever the following day.



After an evening of hiding in the van watching movies during two siblings games (because daddy was working) we came home and gave him an Aveeno oatmeal bath to help the itching and this is what he looked like. It was concerning to say the least and as any good nurse would do we take picture documentation. My poor sweet boy.











That night I had Aaron sleeping in our room out of concerns regarding possible respiratory distress. It was a restless night of half sleep, running fevers, giving medications, etc. When he woke up in the morning he was worse. Now his face had significant edema. His poor lips were even swollen.



Shortly thereafter I noticed there was also edema in his hands and feet. They were both tender and he didn't want to walk much. Needless to say we headed back in to have the culprit lanced again, cultured again, and to get a script for some oral steroids to help the swelling. The verdict now was not poison ivy but most likely a staph infection that was responding well to his antibiotic.



Thankfully he started turning around by later in the afternoon. He now looks like our Aaron again and we are so very thankful that the Lord protected him, guided the doctor to an accurate diagnosis and prevented a more serious complication.