Wednesday 10 December 2008

Spots before my eyes...

Put a spot over here........

And a spot over there......

And a spot on your ear.........

And a spot on your hair.........

And a lot of little spots in the air everywhere......

It's a spotty kind of.........

NOOOO, NO MORE SPOTS!


My Poor baby Dragon has spots. Lots of spots. Mostly on his legs. He has HENOCH-SCHONLEIN PURPURA. It's an immune reaction to a strep infection (And on doctors orders I have not googled it). My first thought was... This is from a sore throat????


Look at his knee, that is how skinny his little legs usually are, and that right ankle is huge. Yesterday morning he woke up with a pink rash on his legs, not too many spots, they could have been insect bites. Through the day they got bigger and darker and by late afternoon they were looking like mozzie bites, it was slow and steady that far... within 2 hours they had become uneven shapes (obviously not bites) and BRIGHT red. We ducked off to the after hours doctor. By the time was saw the nurse each one had a little welt around it. By the time we saw the doctor each one had a goose egg around it and his right ankle was really swollen. The doctor gave us a diagnosis after consulting with our paediatrician over the phone (well her paediatrician husband since she had gone to bed) and made us a 9am appointment to confirm the diagnosis. After the paed got off the phone he and his wife had a chat and got looking deeper at other options in case it wasnt what they first thought. It wasnt. The first diagnosis was the same as far as immune reaction to an infection but the rash was the sole reaction. The new diagnosis was the Henochblahblahblah thing which can cause arthritis, renal and gastrointestinal problems. "I'll take the first diagnosis please Larry". So we have to collect a urine sample from a kid that wears a nappy (she gave us a nifty little bag or two for that but I'm still not thinking it'll be easy) and tomorrow we have a paediatric pathologist appointment to get some blood out of him. Then we are back to the fabulous Dr J on friday.

He seems to be fine other than the rash which she felt was positive but she gave me her home number in case we notice blood in his nappy contents. Dr J was just wonderful and she asked if her husband could come in and check out the rash (since it's not real common) and told us that she had to pull rank and use the "but he's my patient" line when hubby wanted to see us this morning instead of her. They had a med student at the rooms too so she came and got a bit more of an education. And she bought her camera in specially for photos of Dragon.

He is not at all a chubby bubby and he usually has very definate ankles, these look more like pregnant woman ankles. So we are keeping an eye on him and praying that it all settles down (it can last for 10 days or for months).

Dr J also is so kind, knowing we aren't flushed with funds she has opted to charge full fee for this first visit then only the rebate amount for however many appointments we need after that since it could be quite a few. SHE IS THE MOST BRILLIANT DOCTOR AROUND!

Sorry it's a long post, I wanted to put in all the information for family. I could write more but I cant remember what I wanted to write now because it's really late so this all probably doesnt make sense.

12 comments:

  1. Ohh no, I'm so sorry! I'll send some prayers your way.

    Thank Heavens for 'brilliant' Doctors.

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  2. Oh poor baby!
    Does it itch?

    My Chandler had a reaction to penicillin when she was very little... it's scary to see your kids all covered in weird spots!

    Praying for little Dragon!!

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  3. Praying for dragon. Poor little guy...

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  4. Oh my word! This is so scary! Jonathan had Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease a couple weeks ago and that freaked me out. I would be bawling and clutching my child like a crazy woman over all this! Hang in there are we'll be praying for you and Dragon!

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  5. Dear Heavenly Father,
    Please be with Dragon, his family and his doctors as they try to help him heal from this strange illness. Help them to stay calm and remember to look at all the options. Please give them answers as to how to relieve any pain or itching this illness may cause. Also Heavenly Father, pleae help Dragon to be brave and tough as he is poked and prodded in order to find a cure for this sudden illness. In your name I pray.
    Amen

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  6. Our GP used to tell me that the child's behaviour was the first sign of serious illness. So as you said Dragon is acting 'normal' that's a great sign that this will not be a serious problem.

    Still, we are praying that everything will be fine very soon. It would have been really scary to watch that rash develop.

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  7. Oh no poor little Dragon. Will pray he recovers quickly. Your pediatrician sounds fantastic - how great that she is married to one as well & they can research together!
    I know how difficult it is to collect urine samples (Ellie's had chronic UTI's since she was 2 1/2) I found the bags to be very difficult - but then she's a girl, so it is just difficult! If he's aware of when he's going potty, I would try & collect stright into the bottle - it's cleaner & less likely to contaminate.

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  8. Question... did they say Scarlet fever? I know that is usually the rash that goes along with strep (two of my kids had that last month. UGH!) It doesn't look like it, but if they have a tiny red rash all over their chest as welll...)
    Poor kiddies! I hope they feel better soon.

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  9. Wow. In all my mommy-ing, I've not run across this one! SO glad you were able to get in to someone who is compassionate and knowledgeable. Hope he is feeling better soon!!!

    Blessings!

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  10. I hope he will recover soon.

    Jai Sai Ram.

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  11. NO WAY!!!

    I had that same thing and it hurts like a bugger! I thought the same thing...from a sore throat?!?!

    After the bumps and spots showed up all of my major joints started to ache. I mean, really ache. Wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles. I could not even pick up a milk carton.

    My first little boy was about 15 months old and it was a struggle (to say the least).

    It lasted around 4 months. I kept going to the doctor, asking him when in the world it was going to stop. Finally, it just went away...just before I had the onset of extreme endometriosis and a placenta previa pregnancy...whenever there is a rare or weird medical condition, it seems like my body jumps up and down and says, "pick me, pick me"!

    How is it going now?

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  12. Did I miss an update on how he's doing now? OK?

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