I guess I knew that kids get sick a lot, but I always assumed they were just colds and the kids got over them. Which they do, of course, but there's some other weirdness mixed in that no one ever warns you about. Anyone who has ever had to google "rash" knows what I mean. It's crash course in all kinds of infectious diseases that you never knew were even possible. This summer Holly got a light pattern of red, raised bumps all over her skin which I thought at first might be a heat rash but it didn't go away. After sorting though reams of ungodly photos, trying to match the angry red welts on the screen to the ones on my little girl's back, I deduced that she likely had
roseola. The crazy thing is, did you know that almost every single kid gets this by the time they are 2? Yeah neither did I. Consider this my PSA to all other new parents out there. Of course, she also had a blister on her tongue which *might* have been due to teething her 1-year molars, or *might* have been
hand, foot and mouth disease. Did you know this is a fairly common infection in preschool age kids? Seriously, wtf. The best part was having to call my sister and tell her, "Hey! It was so much fun having you, Matt and the twins up at our mountain house for the weekend! By the way Holly may have a highly contagious disease. Kbye."
But kids are resilient, and within days she was back to normal. Luckily the twins never caught the roseola-hoof-and-mouth bug. We were all set to have Thanksgiving at Christine's house but a couple of days beforehand Holly got a touch of a runny nose, hereto known as the harbinger of doom and misery. She was not her normal self.
Hi mama, I'm going to sneeze in your mouth now.
How could you let this happen to me?
Roll me for bed sores in an hour.
She was obviously miserable and absolutely refused to be put down, or not snuggled exclusively by the mama. The same mama who had her mouth sneezed in and was now a puddle of crud.
Wheee. Hiking is fun.
We spent Thanksgiving at home, passed out on the couch, and later managed to pick at some of the side dish I had prepared for the big family dinner. Holly was still acting very pathetic and we realized that something else may be going on, perhaps an ear infection. We took her to the pediatrician the next day and had our suspicions confirmed, leaving with a prescription for amoxicillin.
Yum yum, pink medicine and a bedtime story!
The drug did its trick and she was feeling MUCH better within a day or two. Me, I was fighting the crud for 2 weeks before I finally stopped coughing up terrible things into the sink. Steve claims he came down with something as well but I don't believe him.
So on her last day of antibiotics I saw her scratching at her tummy and said, "That's cute! Let's scratch our tummies together!" When she did it again a few minutes later I lifted her shirt and saw a continent of red, angry welts on her skin. Gaaaaaah! What now?
It's tough being little.
After five minutes of total mommy brain fade and a deep reluctance to go trolling through horrific "rash" pictures again, a little voice peeped up that she may have hives (that picture doesn't do it justice). I called her daycare but she had not had any new foods during the day that may have caused the reaction. Long story short, her pediatrician diagnosed that she has a penicillin allergy. I was surprised that it would show up on the last day of her treatment, but apparently that's not that uncommon. So that will be a thing forever more, but it's not the end of the world. We're all of us healthy once again and will enjoy it until the next plague comes down the pike.
Feeling much better!
