Urticaria Multiforme

Ok fate or karma or world or whomever is so not on or side right now.  I get it.  Can we move on?  Pleas?  We're still down... please stop kicking!

Here's the full day's play-by-play of Logan's 1st ER trip.
I put Logan to bed last night, he looked great.  Gave him a dose of Benadryl before I crawled into bed around midnight.  He still looked good.  I just knew we'd wake up in the morning to clear skin.  I just knew.

Jeff went to get the kids out of their cribs around 8:30 & I just heard a profanity of some form.  Can't off the top of my head remember which it was.  Then I saw THIS!!

We ate breakfast (& had another dose of Benadryl).  Logan never smiled.  We cleaned up.  Danced & sang (as we usually do while we wipe down faces & such).  Logan never smiled.  We started playing & tickling.  Logan never smiled.  Logan ALWAYS smiles.  I knew he didn't feel right.  He just looked so sad.  He broke my heart.  As the next hour or so progressed, his face got more & more red.  And I started noticing more & more that his face looked swollen.  You can tell a little from the picture above, mostly around his eyes.  But the picture doesn't do it justice & it got worse as the morning progressed.  The sides of his face & his eyebrows got pretty puffy.  I tried to pretend for a little while that this wasn't happening.  Damnit!!  Face swelling is scary.

So off to the ER we went.  Gotta love the ER on a Sunday morning.  Luckily our wait wasn't too long.  And when the nurse took one look at Logan we got a very quick response.  When the doctor in the ER walked in the room... he immediately said, oh yeah, no question about it.  Thats urticaria multiforme.  I said its urti-what?  Urticaria Multiforme.  Which is apparently a HYPERsensitive reaction to medications, infections & other various things.  He basically made it sound like its a reaction beyond hives.  Kinda like our allergic reaction now had gone on for 2.5 days (which it had) & now it had progressed to this.  I do realize that the link I posted is for Erythema Multiforme, but from what I understand UM is a form of urticaria (or hives) that take on the appearance of EM.  I may have walked away totally misunderstanding everything, (and googled completly incorrectly) but thats what I got.  Anyways, its classic appearance leaves a "target lesion," as opposed to the normal hive appearance.  I also discovered that it can leave a brownish color of the skin as it clears .  Hence Logan's bruise like appearance last night as his abdomen cleared. 

This is not Logan but a picture from the internet of what Erythema Multiforme looks like.  Totally looks like Logan's "bruises" last night!!  And his legs today.

In the ER he got another dose of Benadryl & a shot of steroids. A respiratory assessment.... to make sure he wasn't in respiratory distress with swelling of his airway. And a check of his mouth.  Pure torture for my poor baby. Then we hung out there for more than 1.5 hours until we knew that the steroids were doing the trick. He was still looking pretty rough when we finally left, but we were at least improving & the swelling was looking much better. All in all we were there for a little over 3 hours!  During the assessment of his mouth we discovered he does actually have one "hive" lesion on his lower gums too. So I think we are lucky this didn't spread to his airways, which I shouldn't even say because you know what happens when I open my big mouth!  So.... in addition to the fact that we are supposed to follow up with the pediatrician tomorrow, the fact that I am exhausted from all of today's events & the fact that I fully intend to make sure he is still breathing probably 1000 times tonight (which I just did by the way)... I AGAIN called in sick to work.  "Called" as in, I stopped by the NICU as we were leaving the ER & told them I wasn't coming into work.  Oh another sick day.  As much as I love spending time home with my kids, this isn't really what I had in mind.  Plus just when we were getting the hang of being a 1 income family, we spend 2 weeks being a ZERO income family. Awesome!

It was again a pleasant ER experience, as far as ER experiences go.  Again I feel we had great & quick care.  And interesting care, because after we had some meds in & we were starting to see some improvement in Logan's face (& the mood was a little lighter) the ER doctor actually asked if he could take pictures of Logan's legs to use in a slide show presentation to use for educational purposes. I of course agreed. Should have asked what the return on my services were?  Pay for my sick days?  Ha!  Then all the PA & MD students & residents from all of kingdom come came in to look at Logan's "textbook target lesions." Thats what teaching hospitals are for, right?  At least it was something to break up the time!  He even said more than once "this is just beautiful." Then appoligized that that sounded so odd.  But I know what he meant.  He said it was "such an amazing teaching experience."  Beautiful is NOT the word I would have chosen to describe Logan in that moment... but the medical profession is a little weird like that.  I might have thought it was beautiful if I was him too.  As long as you're treating what needs treated... say its beautiful & send anyone you want in to take a gander I guess.  Thanks for being so sweet to my baby & for making him better!

As we were going down the elevator heading home, we got on the elevator with 3 other people.  They looked at Logan & just as I was about to open my mouth to say "Its an allergic reaction, he's not contageous."  But one lady looked at me & said "Poor boy... what was he taking?"  I was so relieved to reply, Amoxicillin.  She said she worked in a dermatology office & that his look is just "classic." 

Then it was off to Walmart to fill our prescriptions.  Oral steroids, more Benadryl & a "magic" mouthwash to rub on his gums with Q-tips because of that one oral lesion.  The pharmacist looked at the prescriptions, then looked at Logan like he was ornery & asked "What did you get into?"  Amoxicillin.  I wish I had a sign to wear around that said "No my kid is not contageous!" as we did get a few funny looks while we walked around waiting on the pharmacy.  Walked, as in Logan held my hand & lead me all around Walmart like such a big boy!  He got cranky towards the end of waiting, but seriously it took them forever.  And by now he had not only missed his whole nap but also lunch, in addition to being poked & prodded all darn day.  He had every right to be crabby.  So we picked up a box of fruit snacks (which are usually a treat reserved for stays at GGs) to munch on while we waited & paid for them later. 

By supper tonight, he looked like a whole new kid.  He looks beat... but hive-less & swelling-less at least.

The lesions all over his body are fading.  He has had a handful of new lesions pop up over the course of the night & at one point he had quite a few on his forehead.  Jeff & I got a little nervous for a while.  But it seems the new erruptions have been clearing up in about 30-45 minutes.  So everything in his system is hopefully going to continue to do the trick. 

Send some prayers our way please.  Pray this was the worst of the allergic reaction & that Logan keeps getting better.  And that it never happens again!  And pray that our luck can turn once & we can stay "healthy" for more than a day.  Pray.  Because I am exhausted!