The Big Itch

So Saturday morning we decided to travel approximate two miles down the street to take the kids roller skating.   I will have to come back and write another post about that experience alone because, whoa, it was like a flash back to the fifth grade.  Plus putting inexperienced children on skates is comedic gold, am I right?

What started as a fun, even whimsical weekend quickly took a nosedive.  Around mid-afternoon on Saturday Michael started complaining of a sore ear and began running a mild fever.  No problem, I thought, a little ibuprofen will carry us through and I'll make an appointment first thing Monday morning.  Haha.

Matt stayed home so Michael could sleep in Sunday morning while I took Harper to church.  It is important to note that I did not see Michael awake before we left...

After church we chatted with some of our friends who remarked on the absence of our male contingent.  No problem I said haughtily, just a little ear infection brewing, we'll go to the doctor tomorrow, no need to run to urgent care for that.  Man, has parenthood taught me nothing?

Once we arrived home I knew something was wrong the minute Michael spoke to me.  It sounded like he had a couple of marshmallows stuck in his throat.  I cringe just thinking about what it looked like in there - so swollen his tonsils were pretty much touching - I have no idea how he was swallowing.

Of to urgent care we went, armed with a huge bag of books and a dose of ibuprofen for the road.  Both the nurse and nurse practitioner who looked at Michael's throat had audible shocked reactions -so hard to believe that happen over night - and we left after about two hours with a script for some antibiotics.

That should be the end of the story, but no, not so much.

Michael took the first dose of meds with no problem.  After dinner I tried to give him another dose - which he tried to spit out - I figured he just didn't want to swallow because his throat was so sore...  but five minutes later he was scratching at his neck and pulling at the collar of his sweatshirt.  I stripped his shirt off to see that his entire trunk was splotchy and red, as well as his neck and shoulders.  Yikes.  Because of our history with allergies I have a really, really hard time not going into an internal panic when I see signs of an allergic reaction.  Unfortunately we couldn't even give him Benadryl because he'd already taken his daily does of Claritin.

I called the after-hours line for our pediatrician and talked with a grumpy nurse who told me I had to call urgent care.  I called urgent care to get more unhelpful advice - don't give him any more of that med (duh) and call 911 if he starts to have trouble breathing (again, duh).  They did say I could use Harper's EpiPen on him if  his throat started to swell shut, which was the only reassuring bit of information to get.  Although if I thought Michael was having an anaphylactic allergic reaction I wouldn't wait for permission to use our EpiPens.

We watched him closely for a couple of hours before finally putting him to bed.  As soon as we dropped Harper off at school this morning it was off to the pediatrician for a closer look and a new prescription.  Poor guy looks like he has a sunburn and may stay that way for up to a week.

I am telling you we better be through with all these germs and soon because I am feeling beat right down but these never ending sicknesses.  Spring cannot come fast enough.

*****

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