11/24/2011 part ii
So the part I didn't mention is when Margaret woke up fussy last night and upon getting a good look at her I realized she had splotchy hives all over her scalp that she was scratching maniacally.
I Googled "azithromycin hives" and got the pants scared right off of me. Go ahead, try it yourself, I'll wait.
I called her doctor's office and got the answering service, so I asked them to have the on-call get in touch with me ASAP. Michael stayed with Margaret to make sure she wouldn't stop breathing (she was breathing pretty easy, actually, ain't that a pisser) and I did some more research. Everything I read said, "If you have an allergic reaction get thee to emergency medical care posthaste." The PA called me back and pretty much confirmed my assessment so I packed her up and headed out.
I'll tell you what - when you show up at the ER and tell the front desk person "My three year old is having an allergic reaction to Azithromycin" you get instantaneous service. Seriously, she typed it in to the computer, hit enter, I signed a form and turned toward Margaret who was sitting in the waiting area a few feet away watching television and a nurse came walking swiftly from the triage rooms saying, "Is this Margaret?" All within a twenty second span. Kudos to the ER team.
They got us settled in a triage room (and they're all really nice, this hospital recently built this new wing so it's quite posh) and I noticed with a sinking feeling that the hives on Margaret's head were gone. Were they going to think I was nuts? She seemed in very good spirits for having been woken up and whisked away in the car. Just as the doctor stopped in I saw a small hive appear on her neck. "Oh, here's one now, on her neck," I said, and the doctor, who took a quick peek under her shirt, replied in an amused voice, "Did you see her back? Man, that makes me itchy just looking at it!"
We were all making such a big deal over it that Margaret asked me to take a picture with my cell phone so she could see.
It proceeded to spread all up under her armpits and down her back to her buttocks. Poor kid. "Everything is itchy!" she said.
The nurse brought her a dose of Benadryl to deal with the hives, and the poor nugget couldn't stand the taste. I had to encourage her to finally choke all of it down and she was rewarded with some orange juice. She took a few sips then said, "It doesn't taste very good," no doubt from the traces of Benadryl in her mouth :(
The Benadryl did the trick and all of those angry hives disappeared as if they had never been there. She had a chest x-ray and was very good for the whole thing, standing very still and doing what she was asked. She was such a good patient, even through the awful medicine. I asked for copies of the x-ray because they're cool, and because if I'm going to be bombarding my kid with radiation I should at least get a copy for our home medical files.
The doctor took some time reviewing them and reported that they look just fine - if Margaret did indeed have pneumonia then it appears to have subsided, or (which I think is more likely) she didn't have it in the first place. He pointed to the area to the left of her heart and said that he could see that maybe she had some "bronchial stuff" going on. Anyway in light of this information we were advised to stop the Azithromycin, keep giving her nebulizer treatments as per usual and if she started to run fevers or get noticeably sick again, I was given a script for a different antibiotic that I could fill. "Barely anybody is allergic to Azithromycin, I guess she's just lucky!" he said. He was a real comedian - but then again at 10:30 at night the day before Thanksgiving I guess you need to find a way to amuse yourself.
We were given a few more doses of Benadryl for the road and instructed to use them if the hives returned. I'm guessing it takes some time for the body to completely purge an antibiotic. We got home and she was nearly asleep and went back to bed without incident.
Today she's been happy as a clam - in fact both kids were bouncing off the walls and what with being ill myself I felt I was at their mercy. Michael was tired, as well, so the day was a bit rough. We had some good points but there were a number of times when I had to send kidlet to his room just to separate them. I had a talk with him after Margaret was in bed, saying that tomorrow I would be handing down the time outs without a second warning if the two of them pulled that same crap again. (I concede it was my fault for not getting right on that bandwagon from the start, allowing the kids to run roughshod over us without enough consequences. Here's hoping tomorrow will be better.
Just now Margaret woke up with more hives on her back and legs. They weren't anything like yesterday, but I had to force her to take her Benadryl and she didn't like it one bit. I felt like a shit parent putting it in a syringe and pressing her to open her mouth and swallow it. She did take it, begrudingly, and we gave her her water cup and a Dum Dum pop to get the taste out of her mouth. She seemed okay when she fell back to sleep and I'm sure the medicine will knock her out sufficiently.
As for me, I still feel sunburny hot and cold and I'm running a very slight temp. I've been taking Acetaminophen to take the edge off but my headaches are legendary. Whenever I cough it's excruciating. I just took two expired NyQuil capsules and if I don't drop dead hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.
I Googled "azithromycin hives" and got the pants scared right off of me. Go ahead, try it yourself, I'll wait.
I called her doctor's office and got the answering service, so I asked them to have the on-call get in touch with me ASAP. Michael stayed with Margaret to make sure she wouldn't stop breathing (she was breathing pretty easy, actually, ain't that a pisser) and I did some more research. Everything I read said, "If you have an allergic reaction get thee to emergency medical care posthaste." The PA called me back and pretty much confirmed my assessment so I packed her up and headed out.
I'll tell you what - when you show up at the ER and tell the front desk person "My three year old is having an allergic reaction to Azithromycin" you get instantaneous service. Seriously, she typed it in to the computer, hit enter, I signed a form and turned toward Margaret who was sitting in the waiting area a few feet away watching television and a nurse came walking swiftly from the triage rooms saying, "Is this Margaret?" All within a twenty second span. Kudos to the ER team.
They got us settled in a triage room (and they're all really nice, this hospital recently built this new wing so it's quite posh) and I noticed with a sinking feeling that the hives on Margaret's head were gone. Were they going to think I was nuts? She seemed in very good spirits for having been woken up and whisked away in the car. Just as the doctor stopped in I saw a small hive appear on her neck. "Oh, here's one now, on her neck," I said, and the doctor, who took a quick peek under her shirt, replied in an amused voice, "Did you see her back? Man, that makes me itchy just looking at it!"
We were all making such a big deal over it that Margaret asked me to take a picture with my cell phone so she could see.
It proceeded to spread all up under her armpits and down her back to her buttocks. Poor kid. "Everything is itchy!" she said.
The nurse brought her a dose of Benadryl to deal with the hives, and the poor nugget couldn't stand the taste. I had to encourage her to finally choke all of it down and she was rewarded with some orange juice. She took a few sips then said, "It doesn't taste very good," no doubt from the traces of Benadryl in her mouth :(
The Benadryl did the trick and all of those angry hives disappeared as if they had never been there. She had a chest x-ray and was very good for the whole thing, standing very still and doing what she was asked. She was such a good patient, even through the awful medicine. I asked for copies of the x-ray because they're cool, and because if I'm going to be bombarding my kid with radiation I should at least get a copy for our home medical files.
The doctor took some time reviewing them and reported that they look just fine - if Margaret did indeed have pneumonia then it appears to have subsided, or (which I think is more likely) she didn't have it in the first place. He pointed to the area to the left of her heart and said that he could see that maybe she had some "bronchial stuff" going on. Anyway in light of this information we were advised to stop the Azithromycin, keep giving her nebulizer treatments as per usual and if she started to run fevers or get noticeably sick again, I was given a script for a different antibiotic that I could fill. "Barely anybody is allergic to Azithromycin, I guess she's just lucky!" he said. He was a real comedian - but then again at 10:30 at night the day before Thanksgiving I guess you need to find a way to amuse yourself.
We were given a few more doses of Benadryl for the road and instructed to use them if the hives returned. I'm guessing it takes some time for the body to completely purge an antibiotic. We got home and she was nearly asleep and went back to bed without incident.
Today she's been happy as a clam - in fact both kids were bouncing off the walls and what with being ill myself I felt I was at their mercy. Michael was tired, as well, so the day was a bit rough. We had some good points but there were a number of times when I had to send kidlet to his room just to separate them. I had a talk with him after Margaret was in bed, saying that tomorrow I would be handing down the time outs without a second warning if the two of them pulled that same crap again. (I concede it was my fault for not getting right on that bandwagon from the start, allowing the kids to run roughshod over us without enough consequences. Here's hoping tomorrow will be better.
Just now Margaret woke up with more hives on her back and legs. They weren't anything like yesterday, but I had to force her to take her Benadryl and she didn't like it one bit. I felt like a shit parent putting it in a syringe and pressing her to open her mouth and swallow it. She did take it, begrudingly, and we gave her her water cup and a Dum Dum pop to get the taste out of her mouth. She seemed okay when she fell back to sleep and I'm sure the medicine will knock her out sufficiently.
As for me, I still feel sunburny hot and cold and I'm running a very slight temp. I've been taking Acetaminophen to take the edge off but my headaches are legendary. Whenever I cough it's excruciating. I just took two expired NyQuil capsules and if I don't drop dead hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.