Emergency Room Visit

Thankfully, it's nothing serious (that we know of, yet).

The girls spent Wednesday - Friday with my mom, since both Steve and I had to work and camp didn't start until this week.

Steve picked them up after work, around 8pm and they got home right before 9pm. I asked Ava to come give me a hug and immediately Steve said "she wants prednisone" - HUH? That's quite the request. What's going on?

I took one look at her face and realized it was red, puffy and looked rough.

I said ok - let's start with Benadryl and let's hop in the shower and change clothes, etc.

She goes upstairs to the bathroom and I am helping her undress - and I see that her entire lower abdomen area is completely raw. Like 2nd or maybe even 3rd degree burn - looking. NOT burns, but peeling like that. Like she had rubbed it RAW. 

She even gasped and said "I didn't know it was that bad!" and hopped in the shower.

I made the call to go to the ER. Something wasn't right.

She got cleaned up and we headed to the ER.

I said "my kid's having an allergic reaction" and they took us back right away.

Once back there, I got a better look.

That does not look like an allergic reaction

So I failed to get any other pictures while we were there. We were seen by a few people and while I was chatting with the nurses, I was also texting my friend. Her son had weird spots on him the last day we were in Alex Bay. We thought maybe it was from rubbing on the tube. Or something.

Well, his came back as some general viral skin infection. They prescribed him an antibiotic and he started to clear up within a few days. She had two of her four boys affected.

I think everyone was most concerned about her raw belly. I felt SO badly for her.

The doctors took pictures and sent them to Strong for an opinion. It came back as "non specified skin infection"

I'm not panicking. This girl swam in a pond and the St. Lawrence in the last couple of weeks. 

But, I'm really glad I brought her in. I was explaining to her that it's late Friday night and I wouldn't be able to get her to a doctor until Monday. 3 days away.

This way, we got a dose of antibiotics in her right away and they filled a prescription for us that I picked up Saturday morning. So she didn't go the entire weekend with no relief.

They also recommended Neosporin to put all over the raw wounds. So we've been doing that every time she takes a dose of medicine. We wash hands, apply the ointment, air it out for a bit before putting shorts/pants back on. 

But, she IS healing. 

Poor kiddo is going to miss the first couple days of camp. 

You can see some spots on her face. I felt bad for her so when Mila and I went out, I got her this new noodle bowl. 

Perfect for her 3 minute ramen! 

See that rawness? That's how her lower belly is. Only worse. And it covers basically her ENTIRE lower belly area. Thankfully she says it does not hurt and is not that itchy. 

Oh and the other fun part? Another boy that was on the trip with us (another family) got diagnosed with ringworm. 

LOL. I mean, it's not funny. But this will always now be known as the year of the "non-specified, maybe ringworm rash"

Like, WTF, right? All 3 of our families got this weird ass rash? And for each family, it was 50% of the kids in the family who were affected. We all swam in the same river. 

I haven't had time to think whether or not I would contract whatever rash this is. 

Please God no. 

I will NOT do well. I would pick and scar all over. 

And, ew. 

After a round of antibiotics her rash seemed to clear up and we moved on with life.

About 2 weeks go by and one day after camp we saw that she looked rough, again. We didn't immediately think it was related to the first rash, as it did present just slightly differently. I treated it for a few days using neosporin again just to see if that would make a difference in a day or two.

It didn't.

I ended up taking her to Urgent Care to get looked at again.

Urgent Care suggested I take her back to the ER, because they were concered about Steven Johnson Syndrome, which is a scary condition that could happen after antibiotics. Something about how the body reacts to the medicine. But she didn't present with flu like symtpoms so I was hesitant.

But then we had to go back to the ER and we had to wait and wait and wait. Steve did come to relieve me, as I had done the previous ER visit. 

They were home within a few hours, but sadly with no diagnosis. Just another prescription for antibiotics and a strong steroid cream. 

It's finally starting to clear up, after a week of dealing with it. 

I spoke too soon.

2 weeks after clearing up, Ava's rash came back with a vengeance. 

Bad enough that I took her to Urgent Care one morning and they sent us to the ER. The PA there was initially concerned with Steven Johnson Syndrome, which is a reaction to being on antibiotics. He was afraid that it was affecting her internal organs and sent us to the ER.

I waited with poor Ava for about 2 hours before Steve came to relieve me. Ava had been playing on my phone since Urgent Care, so I was just raw dogging it for like 3.5 hours. It was rough. I was of course concerned, but Ava was acting pretty normally. She didn't like to sit, because of the raw open wounds, but she didn't complain about pain or itchiness. She wanted my phone and she wanted candy. Good lord this child.

But Steve came to bring her tablet and sat with her so I could go run a million errands. And I did the late night ER visit the last time, so it was his turn.

Thankfully they were only there for another hour or two and the doctors there did NOT think it was SJS. She did not have flu-like symptoms, no fever, etc. so they didn't think that was it. Thank GOD.

Another round of antibiotics and a strong ointment to use on the rash.

Now after another 10 days, she's clearing back up. Poor kiddo! 

Oh and Mila's also came back as one spot on her back, so she's back on antibiotics. And then Steve started with a rash on his wrists and ankles and so he's on meds now too.

And then of course, I thought I was in the clear - I was not. I found two itchy spots and immediately got put on antibiotics because apparently we can spread it back and forth to each other. Awesome. 

Luckily, we are all finally on the mend.