April 10, 2017

Greg and I were quietly talking in the dark before we fell asleep last night when Owen ran down to our room crying.  He had been asleep, of course, and was crying and holding his tummy.  I jumped up and ran him into the bathroom thinking he might be on the verge of throwing up.  But as I tried to put him on the toilet, he woke up enough to let me know that it was his actual skin on his stomach that was hurting.  Plus, I could now tell that he was scratching it like crazy.  I turned on the lights to find he was covered in red welts!

Owen was pretty miserable, but Greg helped me get him calmed down.  We quickly gave him some Benadryl and rubbed him down with hydrocortisone cream.  I made up a little bed for him next to our bed and after about a half hour, he had calmed down and was drifting off to sleep.

In the morning, I gave him some prednisone that we had on hand and since he still had quite a few hives, I kept him home from school.  Mom came over to watch the little boys while I went to the school (Sunrise Ridge Intermediate) for a school community council meeting.

By the time I got home, Owen was looking pretty bad again.  I called Greg and he told me to give Owen some more Benadryl, which totally cleared him up by the afternoon.  That evening, we went to Austin's baseball game.  I was thinking that Owen was all better since he had been completely cleared up, but by the end of the game, he came over to show me that he was breaking out in hives all over again.  I rushed him home to get him some medicine.  He was so sweet about it.  He said, "Mom, that medicine is so yucky, but it helped so much so I'm going to take it." The whole car ride home, he was grunting and groaning and trying little tricks for himself to not scratch.  It was sad.

After I gave him the medicine, I put him in a shower to wash him off.  We were feeling so clueless about what was causing his hives.  By the time I got him out of the shower, his whole face was covered and his lips were swelling.  That really scared me and Greg.  We decided that this was just getting worse.  I rushed Owen to the after-hours clinic at the pediatrician's office in the hospital.  I pushed him in Lance's Mickey Mouse stroller, running the whole way in to the hospital.  They quickly took his oxygen levels, which were fine, but after looking at his face, they sent us down to the E.R.  I didn't want to go there.  But I was worried too.

Poor Owen!

By the time we got all situated in the E.R., the medicine started to kick in and Owen started looking a little better. Finally the doctor came in and I told him our whole story.  He wanted to call Greg and consult with him about what to do.  (It was funny and I felt like the hospital should pay Greg part of our fee!!).  We all finally decided to just let us go home and to continue with the steroids and the antihistamines.  Owen was so tired by now.

Feeling better in the hospital.

Ready to go home.  So tired! 

I brought him home and tucked him into the bed on my floor.  I set my alarm for one a.m., knowing that I would have to stay on top of the Benadryl so we didn't get into an emergency situation.  One o'clock was when he could have his next dose.  It was almost 11:00 when we turned out the lights and started to fall asleep.  I heard Owen start to rustle around in his bed.  Then, he started thrashing a bit more.  Worried, I turned on a small light to look at him.  He was covered head to toe in bright red welts!

By now, he was completely groggy from the Benadryl, completely out-of-control itchy from the rash, and completely unreasonable!  We somehow got him to take some of Greg's allergy medicine, but we knew it would take an hour to kick in.  And the next hour of our lives was so sad and miserable.  Owen was itching himself bloody, and no matter what Greg and I tried, he was so mad.  He would say, "Just shut up, Mom!" (And he doesn't normally talk like that!).  Then he would cry.  Then he would want to rub my hair like he loves, but his palms were so swollen and red that it would hurt so bad and he would start to cry all over again.  We tried hydrocortisone and ice packs and anything we could think of.  He. Was. Miserable.  Finally, finally, he started to calm down just enough to watch a little show on T.V., still itching and scratching like crazy.  And then he started to hold still for a few seconds, then a minute, then another.  At midnight, as Owen calmed down a lot, Greg told me to give him his next dose of Benadryl even though we were an hour too early.  We were all exhausted and we were so afraid of a break out again.

Thankfully, Owen slept through the rest of the night.  We've stayed on top of the medicine and we are hanging in there. But boy, these "itchies" -as we call them- have been quite the nightmare!  As for the cause, we aren't sure.  Maybe it was his vaccinations from last week.  Maybe it was something he ate.  We just can't figure it out.  I'm just so glad he's okay.