I feel like 2013 has been a year of sickness so far! It has been so frustrating to get one kid healthy, with the next one getting sick all over again. Back in Feb. Ivy got her usual ear infection so the Doc put her on Amoxicillin. No big deal. After seven days, I started noticing some bumps on her arms and legs. They looked like hives. I wasn't TOO worried until the following morning and she woke up looking like this.
Her poor face was swollen and her body was totally covered in hives/rashes.
She wasn't itchy yet...that started a few hours later
It was my turn to teach Joy School this day and I had no idea how bad things were going to get. Luckily, my parents were there so I could have them help me with Ivy so I could teach five kids. My parents covered Ivy in anti itch cream (can't remember the name of it) and all that did was make a huge mess. By this time she was constantly twitching and so uncomfortable from all of the itching. There was no relief for the poor baby
The bath helped a little. If anything, the warm water and fun toys took her mind off of the itching. This was mid afternoon and I noticed that the swelling was getting worse so I took her to the doctor. The doctor wasn't too concerned because her airways looked good. Of course, I was a bucket full of nerves, because the swelling kept getting worse.
Ivy went to bed and just before we went to bed, I checked on her. She woke right up and I pulled her out of bed because this is what I found in the crib! I was so freaked out. The poor girl was so uncomfortable and since the swelling had gotten so much worse, I was really nervous that her airways would close during the night and we wouldn't hear her. So, after getting off of the phone with a 24 hour nurse hotline, we decided to take her to the ER. The ER was so traumatic for all of us. Ivy was so scared. She was getting poked and constantly touched by strange people and all she wanted was to sleep, but the itching was so intense, she couldn't.. She had a pretty high fever so the docs gave her Motrin to help it come down and also gave her steroids to help the swelling come down. Once the swelling came down a bit and the Motrin kicked in, she was able to start falling asleep. We got to the ER around 11:30 and got home around 3. It was a long night for us and I wish I could say that everything was fine and dandy after that.
This is the morning after. You can see that the swelling had decreased dramatically, but was still there. The problem that we ran into for the next few days, was crazy bad itching on her legs. She would kick so hard when the attacks came. It was so sad. She had claw marks on her legs, and drew blood from scratching so much. Also, the doc prescribed Prednisone to help the swelling come down, but that particular drug totally wires people. Ivy could not calm down. She was so fidgety and shaky that she had a hard time falling and staying asleep. She would wake up at 5AM jabbering a mile a minute. After all of the swelling was gone, I just took her off of it, even though the doc told me to give it to her for a week. I just couldn't imagine lasting 4 more days with a crazy, non sleeping baby.
I will never give Amoxicillin to Ivy again! This whole experience was such a nightmare. She really was a trooper through it all.
