Hive Boy

A few days before Christmas Ethan began running a fever so I took him into the doctor Friday after Christmas. It turned out he had an ear infection in both ears. The doctor prescribed amoxacillin. Ethan had taken amoxacillin in September for an ear infection and developed a little rash- very common when taking this med. Anyway, he started to get (and feel) better. About a week later I noticed what looked like little bug bites on his legs and some on his torso. On Saturday morning, there were a lot more of these bug bite looking things, so I called his pediatricians office again and spoke to a nurse. I told her they looked like mosquito bites, but they were covering his leg and on a good portion of his body. They did not seem to be bothering him. The RN told me to keep and eye on it and if they get worse to call the doctor. I asked her if she had any idea what they might be, bed bugs, dust mites, etc. She asked if we had any animals- told her we had a dog and cat. She said they might be flea bites. We had never notices fleas on either Zero or Ubu.
I started freaking out thinking we had an infestation of fleas, so I washed all of Ethan's bedding and dirty clothing in hot water and Jim and I took Zero for a flea bath that afternoon (poor Zero!).
Well, by Saturday night they had gotten worse, they started to look like welts. So I called his pediatrician. She asked if he was taking any medications, I told her he was almost finished with the amoxacillin. She said that he could have hives, possibly from the med, but we had to be sure they were hives. Neither Jim or I have ever had hives, so we didn't know for sure. She directed us to take Ethan to the evening pediatrics office for confirmation, so we did. The doc there confirmed that he had hives. Obviously we had to stop the amoxacillin and he gave Ethan a dose of Benadryl. He also said that some times hives form in the air way which is an emergency that warrents a trip to the ER. If we started to hear Ethan wheeze, we would have to rush to the ER. Of course I didn't sleep for a few nights because I was so paranoid that he would stop breathing.
I was hoping the hives would start to look better with Benadryl on board and no more amoxacillin, but they only got worse. I don't have a good picture of just how bad they were, but about 90% of his body was covered in bright red welts, his hands were puffed out (they looked like a surgical glove that had been filled with air!) along with his ankles. I called his doc again Sunday night, and she said to give the Benadryl every 4 hours. On Monday he still wasn't looking any better, so I took him in to see one of the pediatricians after work. He just looked so miserable! She confirmed that he looked miserable and prescribed prednisone for five days. She said I should see a big improvement within two days, but if I didn't, to bring him back in on Thursday. Luckily the Prednisone worked! However, she also said they could come back once he is done taking the Prednisone- so far so good though!
All in all it was a horrible experience and I hope no one else I know has to go through it with their child! In the bottom picture you can kind of see the remnants of the hives. Again- they were all over his body!!