Tuesday, October 14

connect the dots

Yesterday, I spent all afternoon with the dr to find out about my hnd gimpy (i apparently injured my spine and it messes with the nerve in my finger, so the pain moves all the way down. I start physical therapy next week and in is words "if that doesn't work, we can just fix it up" which I almost snorted at). When I got home, my friend who is staying with me until my guy gets back from his trip, informed me that the baby has red spots all over her body. I was a little worried as she had had a fever the day beore. I called "ask a nurse" at bluecross and she said it was no big deal, probably a reaction to the MMR shot she has 2 weeks ago and to just make sure her temp didn't go over 100.5. I called my mom and my mom said it sounded like chicken pox. I ignored everyone until the baby's temp hit 100.5 and then we went to the ER to spend several fun packed hours sitting in the middle of diseased people. The Dr at the ER informed me that she's having an allergic reaction to an antibiotic and to make sure that she never takes anything related to the medication ever again. So Mandolin is currently hopped out on benadryl and i'm looking like a zombie. She can't go to the daycare with spots, so I called off work. I'm a little alarmed because if I did what the "ask a nurse" said, i'd have given her the antibiotic and made her worse.

4 comments:

vq said...

This happened to Ian when he was a baby--just the same, he'd been sick, was on antibiotics, popped up with red spots and a fever. He was diagnosed with a penicillin allergy.

Then when he was about 4, another pediatrician quizzed me about the whole incident. He said "I don't think that was an allergic reaction. I'm pretty sure it was roseola (a very, very common viral infection in babies.)" So he tried Ian on a penicillin based antibiotic and he had no reaction at all. He didn't turn out to actually be allergic. The doc told me that mistake happens fairly often.

Not to say that this is the case with Mandolin, but just something to ask your doc about next time.

vq said...

Jilly, here's a link you might be interested in:

http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/skin/roseola.html

Jilly said...

thanks for the link verb. her fever was only 100.5 at its highest, and the rash looks different from the picture, plus her lymphnodes weren't swollen and she doesn't seem to have a respritory infection, plus her fever comes and goes even after she got the rash. it could still be rseola, and i'll ask the dr when we go on friday. my mom informed me that she and my sisters are allergic to the anitobiotics that the ER doc said mandolin can't have, so i wonder if it can travel in families?

jilly

vq said...

I don't see why drug sensitivities couldn't be hereditary. I think pretty much everything about us is right there in the DNA from birth.