A Rash of Doctor's Visits (Pun Intended)

Will it never end?

We spent the night at the ER with Pip last night.  I put him down to bed around 8pm and he kept waking up and fussing.  Finally, at about 10pm, I went in, grabbed him, and brought him through the dark into bed with me.  But, oddly, even that didn't work.  He kept rubbing his face in the sheets over and over and over again.  Finally, I realized his repetitive actions were indicating the presence of a problem beyond fatigue and exhaustion.  I took him out to The Chief in the living room where the lights were blazing and, sure enough, his skin was absolutely exploding with the strangest sort of rash I've ever seen.  He had big red splotches all over with raised, white skin in the middle of them.  His ears were puffing up ridiculously.  The Chief commented that he looked like a little wrestler with cauliflower ear.  And this rash wasn't benign by any sense of the word.  We watched it move from his head and torso, around to his back, and down his legs all the way to his toes and out to his fingers.  His hands were constantly in motion, clawing at his itchy ears, and his eyes were red and puffy.  It was so, so sad.  We stayed on hold for 30 minutes to be able to speak with an after-hours nurse, but finally decided to relinquish our position in the holds queue and opt for a trip to the ER instead.  We called our trusty babysitter and headed down south with our little puffy marshmallow in tow.

The ER was nasty.  I hate ERs.  I'm a little neurotic about germs in the best of times, so you can imagine how my mind was reeling in the ER, following germ paths from every corner and every patron that were all, of course, leading right to my poor, vulnerable baby boy.  Coughing children, women hanging over portable vomitories, men with bloody gashes; it's all just a little much for me.

We waited, and waited, and waited some more.  We went in so the nurse could take Pip's vitals, only to be shown right back to the waiting room to bide our time before the doctor could see us.  In the meantime, it looked as though Pip's rash was calming a bit.  Just a bit.  By the time we were shown to a bed in the ER, I had had it.  Pipilo was squirmy, tired, and fussy.  His rash was looking better.  And the nurse made the mistake of telling me that with only four people in front of us, it could be *just* a couple more hours before we'd be seen.

Nuh uh.  No way.

It was time to break out of the ER.  I informed the nurse that I was done; that I was sure the baby was doing fine.  Throughout the whole ordeal, he had never experienced any life-threatening symptoms such as difficulty breathing or anything like that.  I felt confident that with the blessing The Chief gave to Pip before we left, he'd be fine.

But the nurse wouldn't give up that easily.  She left to try to find us a better estimate as to how long we'd have to wait for the doctor.  And she came back with the good news that there was only one person left in front of us.

Hooray.

Long story short (too late, I know), the doctor came in and told me that they were going to have me give him a little dose of oral steroids to preempt a second wave of what they believed to be an allergic reaction* (apparently many rashes present in two waves, the second being somewhat worse than the first).  She also taught me the correct dosage of Benadryl to be able to administer to a baby.  After admonishing us to call Pipster's pediatrician and set an appointment to discuss allergy testing, she sent us on our way.

We fell into bed around 2:30am.  Exhausted.  Grateful for the power of the priesthood, Pip's strong constitution, medicine, and a warm, comfy bed at the end of it all.

Today we are zombies.

* The only thing that was new to Pip's body yesterday was the use of sunscreen.   And, sadly, I had gotten a little in his eye which I tried to clean out as best I could with a baby wipe (that was all I had handy).  That's it, though.  He didn't eat anything new or crawl around in any strange, new environment.  Has anyone ever had their child react so violently to something they applied topically?  I'm going to go out and find an all-natural sunscreen ASAP.


{The Pipster in happier times.}