I Give Up

Jane's got a rash. Started on Sunday on her feet and now it's all over her except her face. It's little red bumps every where - on her hands, bottoms of her feet, everything.

The doc said it is an allergic reaction to the antibiotics - so no more penicillins for Jane. I'm not 100% convinced. She finished the drugs on Saturday (he's aware of all of this) and then had a reaction start on Sunday afternoon? I'm no doc but that doesn't seem to make sense to me? Of course, being the googler that I am, I found some info on rashes following fever - so that's what we thought it was as Jane had that high fever for a few days when she was sick with Strep (which we now thing wasn't strep but was actually a virus - oh, dear lord, do doctors know anything?). But, I'm not 100% convinced on that either. I did some more googling today and saw some pictures of prickly heat rash... and it looks exactly like what Jane has. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't many rashes that look like this but when I looked up allergic rash - it looked more like inflamed blotches vs. tiny red bumps like Jane has.

Adding to my theory is that today was crazy hot and we went for a swim in the lake with cousin Lucy and the rash appeared to get a little worse - with a few red bumps showing up on her face.

So, here's my POA... baking soda cool water baths, keeping her in little to no clothing when it's warm, sleeping her in nothing but pj's (i.e. no sleep sac or blanket) with the fan on and window open, and giving her benadryl before bed. Now, this last one troubles me. The last two nights I have given her the benadryl pre-bed and the last two nights, come 1:30ish she won't go back to bed unless she's sleeping with me. I know benadryl can cause either drowsiness or excitability in infants. So, I was worried it was the benadryl that was keeping her up or waking her up, I guess. But, now, as I'm writing this, I'm remembering that the benadryl wears off after 4-6 hours which wouldn't make sense. It would make more sense that, maybe, she's waking up because she's itchy because the benadryl has worn off. I don't know. Holy MAC, does it ever end? The worry, the theories, the changes, etc. Jane was just sleeping through the night and now this nonsense and she's all shagged up again!!! She was just starting to get back to normal - no runny nose, no cough, no sick - and BAM a freakin' rash!!! WTH!!!

And, of course, in typical Mom style, I've been bringing her in the bed with me because she immediately falls back to sleep vs. crying for an hour in her crib. So now I'm worried that she's only waking up because she wants to sleep with me! Again, the worry never ends! :p I must admit, I don't hate having her sleep with me. Being back to work I miss the hours and hours we used to get together so getting some snuggle time at night is kind of awesome and super special. But I definitely don't sleep as well as I'm constantly worried (again, worry) that she will wake up in the middle of the night and fall off the bed. AHHHHH! My mind is fried. This is why mommy brain exists.

Oh, and to add to my worry, a guy I work with just told me his son has croup and that it's super contagious. Awesome. SO now I'm going to be WORRIED that because I've been within 4 ft of this dude, she's going to get croup too.

I need my own personal, expertly trained, never wrong, physician (that's not to say I don't love my current doc, he's great) who lives in my basement so I can consult them on demand. l

Oh, one more worry. Jane's basically had some type of drug in her system for what feels like a month now. I hate giving her anything. I only give her drugs when absolutely necessary (fever, rash, 2 hours straight of crying, etc.) and only during the night as, during the day, the distractions seem to keep other things at bay. But that worries me too - all the drugs. AHHHHH!

Hope you're having a better week!