All during my pregnancy, Charlie and I spent a good deal of time catching up on House. We had never watched it before, and so we had a good deal of catching up to do. We looked forward to Saturday nights when Bravo would run House marathons. Little did we know that out little man would be presenting us with our own diagnostic mystery.
Friday was Ethan's two month well baby visit. Our little munchkin had grown quite a bit, weighing in at 12 pounds 12.2 oz and measuring 23.75 inches! That puts him in the 75 percentile for both height and weight. Keep growing little dude! At any rate, he was vaccinated with all the normal two month vaccinations at this appointment. Friday he had a low grade fever and clearly didn't feel very well. He just wanted to cuddle, sleep, and had a low grade fever. He was clearly uncomfortable, but none of these things were too alarming.
Saturday he was fussy all day, but hey, we all have our bad days. Saturday evening around 7 pm he was fussy almost to the point of being inconsolable...something that is very unlike Ethan. The only way to calm him was in the bathtub. He was still running a low grade fever, and we noticed a few small red dots on his skin. They were about the size of small bug bites. We called the pediatrician. She said it was most likely a food allergy, and told us to give him Tylenol for his fever. In the morning the rash was much worse. We went to the urgent care and the doctor thought the rash appeared to be a virus, but he wasn't ready to rule out a food allergy. He said to keep Ethan on formula only (to rule out a food allergy) and thought the rash was at it's worst. We were to just let it run it's course because regardless of the cause of the rash, there wasn't really any medications that would improve things. He told us to take some photos and see the pediatrician in the morning.
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| This is how poor Ethan looked when we got home from urgent care. |
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| As bad as this looks, it got MUCH worse! |
We went home and Ethan slept with me (after sleeping all morning in my arms) on the couch for three hours (an abnormally long nap, especially for Ethan). When he woke up, we noticed that not only did he appear worse, but he was getting very swollen. Almost all of his skin was covered in the rash and it was starting to turn purple. We called the pediatrician right away and she said to head to the ER. It didn't take very long for them to get us in to be seen (you get pretty fast tracked at 9 weeks old). All of Ethan's vital signs were perfect. The ER doctor could identify the rash, but it's one of those things that can be caused by a million different things. He had blood tests run and chest x-rays done to rule out infections and diseases. All the tests came back negative. That's when they called in a pediatric doctor from the pediatric wing of the hospital. She and the pediatric resident agreed with the diagnosis of the rash, but were also stumped by the cause. They took some cultures to rule out any other diseases and called an infection control specialist from DuPont Children's hospital. He too was stumped. Turns out that this particular rash (I never did get the name--it was long and Latin, but basically means "unexplained red rash") is very very uncommon in children Ethan's age. Drug reactions are one of the most common causes. Food allergy had been completely ruled out. At this point, they were trying to connect the rash to some Ibuprofen that I had taken, even though after my C-section I took large amounts of Ibuprofen without any problems. They had not ruled out the immunizations, but the chance of a severe reaction to the shots would be 1 in 1 million. Not very good odds.
We were admitted for the night and Ethan was monitored by EKG and they continued to watch his vital signs. At this point, he was not treated with any medications for fear of any drugs clouding results. He was given Tylenol to control his fever and to help keep him comfortable. Ethan was made a cozy little bed by the nurse and Charlie and I slept on a cot and on some pillows. We hadn't eaten since lunch, so at 12:30 am, Charlie ran out to the house to pick up a few items for us, and stopped and got some horrible burgers at Wendy's for "dinner." Ethan slept through the rest of the night, and even slept through the nurse flipping him all around to check his vitals (including weight and that uncomfortable baby temperature). By morning, the team of doctors at Lancaster General and DuPont had read journals and done their research. At this point, they had decided that it was not the Ibuprofen to blame at all, but the immunizations were in fact suspected. Every pediatric doctor in the hospital was by to see Mr. Ethan and work towards his diagnosis. Lastly, they did a urinalysis for a few last tests, and had no negative results. The rash looked better by morning, and by late afternoon it was much improved. Although it had continued to spread, the new patches were much less severe, and the old patches were fading. Ethan spent most of his hospital stay sleeping. Luckily, Daddy got the Sleep Sheep on that late night trip home (good thinkin' Mommy)! It really helped him relax.
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| Ethan starting to look and feel better! He's telling Daddy all about it! |
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| If you put the rails all the way up on the crib, Daddy would tell Ethan he was in "Baby Jail" |
We were released around 6 pm, about 24 hours after we had arrived at the ER. At this point, our Ethan was showing signs of his old self again (talking, moving around, not sleeping...). The staff at the hospital were great. They definitely did everything they possibly could for our little guy, and we are thankful for their hard work.
So where are we now? There was still one urine test out last night when we left. They are looking for proteins that would appear during an allergic reaction. We should get those results when we see our pediatrician tomorrow. In the next few weeks we will be off to Delaware to the Children's Hospital to see an Allergist/Immunologist to develop a plan going forward. Most likely, his next next round of vaccinations will have to be done under the observation of the Immunologist.
Until then--Ethan is feeling (and
looking) much better. Today has been a bit rough as we are trying to get back into our routine (and I'm sure Ethan is still feeling a bit lousy). Thanks everyone for all your kind words and love over the last few days! Ethan appreciates it. He truly is one in a million!
