Hives, Ice, the ER, and Uncle Gick didn't even puke

I should win some kind of motherhood award. Serioulsy, Ya'll. Or at the very least somekind of financial restitution. Can you sue your own minor children for mental anguish? OK, so it's not really their fault, but it is beginning to wreek of conspiracy.

Yesterday, BabyGirl finally gave in & decided to do her homework. She did her penmanship, and moved on to math. After the first side of her math worksheet, she started complaining of the cold. I told her to put something on & went on about my business. 20 minutes later I discovered her sitting at the table curled in a ball, freezing. Her temp was back up to 101.2, so I gave her some medicine & sent her to bed.

She napped for about an hour, got up & lounged around for about 20 more minutes, then I sent her in to finish her homework. I was doing dishes when she walked by & pulled her night shirt off (she was itchy...again). I noticed an odd red spot on her arm & called her over to me. Her neck, arms, & torso were covered in a strange rash. I can state for a fact it had not been there 2 hours prior. It was an ugly mess...my first thought was ringworm until I realized it covered about 30% or more of her body.

I called Uncle E's to see if they could watch the boys so I could take her to the ER (it was just after 6 & the boys were in the tub). Then I called Husband to tell him what was going on. He told me to be careful of the roads...I'd forgotten about the ice we were in the middle of. I do not drive in snow & ice. So I called Uncle Gick to see if he'd ride in to the hospital with us. Unkie Di said, "Stay there, he'll come get you."

By the time we got to the ER, the rash had spread & BabyGirl was miserable. The doctor we had was wonderful (much to my great relief...they have one there I cannot stand). He said it was hives & probably caused by her new antibiotics. He took her off the antibiotics, put her on prednisone, ran blood work to rule out infection, and said strep might not even have been the problem to begin with since they never did a strep culture. He wants us to have a strep test done on Monday to see, but he wasn't too happy with the doctor's office for putting her on antibiotics without a strep test. I've always been told they treat strep & tonsilits the same way, so there's no sense in a swab. He thought it may have been a virus. The rash was gone before we left the hospital with no meds.

Uncle Gick, Unkie Di, the girls & I headed to CVS to get the prednisone. As we were pulling out of the parking space, BabyGirl puked all over herself. All I could do was stick my hands out to catch it. By the time we were done, her coat, my coat, my cardigan, her pants, her shoes, my pants, my socks, and half the back of the van had been spattered with puke. Unkie Di went into CVS & bought a plastic CD box incase BabyGirl needed to hurl again. Half a roll of paper towels & a handful of baby wipes later & we headed home. Now I have to say, Uncle Gick does not deal with vomit well. Not at all. He normally hums or whistles when it happens. BabyGirl puked in her room at the ER while he was waiting with us, and again in the van while he was driving. He never flinched. He did take Bitsy out of the ER room after a few minutes, but still, I was very proud of him. If he hummed at all, I never heard it.

BabyGirl is still sleeping & I'm dreading giving her a second dose of Prednisone (nasty, horrid stuff). The hives came back before she finally gave up & went to bed at midnight last night.

I'm learning that when it seemes like you're at the very end of your rope, you find a little more lenght dangling just beneath you.

Oddly enough, at the same time I was in the ER with BabyGirl, Art was in the ER with Syd...same problem, different medicine! Syd had it worse as her face & hands were swollen. Both girls are on prednisone now. What a world.