Poor Paigey

Thursday before we left for the river Paige woke up with a few red bumps on her face and body. By that evening she had an obvious rash on her body so I gave her benadryl assuming it was an allergic reaction or allergy of some form. I instructed my mom to give her benadryl and watch it. The rash was better but the few places on her face were getting worse. I told mom to put Neosporin on the spots and I would be back soon to take her to the doctor. They had their 15 month checkup Tuesday anyway. When I returned from the river one of the spots had gotten absolutely out of control. We were referred to the dermatologist on the following day to figure out the cause of the spots.

Paige and I went to the doctor the following day and it was eczema. What? Ethan has eczema not Paige? Apparently most kids develop eczema around a year to a year and a half. News to me! Since the spots were eczema the Neosporin did not help and the major spots on her eye had turned into impetigo. Impetigo is a bacterial infection and is the same thing Ethan had when he was misdiagnosed with chicken pox before his first birthday. She was given Penicillin and I was instructed to use the Albatrax topical cream that I already had at home for Ethan.

The doctor was extremely concerned about the location of the bacterial infection. Since the infection was so close to her eye and on top of her eye lid he was very worried about it getting inside her eye. He made it very clear that if any redness or crusty stuff showed inside her eye or eyelid then she was to go to Cook's Hospital immediately. Okay, I get it. I am scared shit less thanks doc! Apparently if the bacteria were to get into her eye it would quickly spread through the blood stream to the rest of her body and make her very sick.

As if that wasn't enough for one day... Dallas and I were terrified of giving her the Penicillin! They dosed down the Penicillin because of her size and age because she needed something strong. I am allergic to Penicillin and haven't had it since I was a small child. The doctor said it was very important she start on the medicine as soon as possible which was as soon as I got her home from the sitter. I had to go back to work after her doctors appointment. The problem I was having was giving my daughter a dose of a medication that could make her swell and quit breathing right before bed. How was I supposed to make sure she wasn't having a reaction? Were we just supposed to hope she woke up in the morning? I don't think so! Dallas and I pretty much had a panic attack trying to decide what to do.

I decided to take off a few mins early and go get her medication before I went to get her. I gave her the Penicillin as soon as I arrived at Melissa's house to allow ample amount of time for a reaction. I had directions to Cook's Children's Hospital in the car ready if necessary. Dallas even took off the next day to make sure that if Paige showed any sign of bacteria in her eye or had a reaction to the meds he could rush her to Cook's immediately. I can not tell you how many times I looked at that child's face and body in the two hours before she went to bed. Thankfully she had no reaction and was looking better even by the next morning. She was fine but we were not. How are we ever going to be able to handle the truly horrible things that will inevitably happen over the years? Guess it is time to up the Lexapro again!

It has been a few weeks and Paige is doing much better. She still has a faint red mark on her eye brow but the doctor seems to think that it will disappear over time. They said whenever you have deep tissue damage it can take a very long time to completely go away. She is having outbreaks of eczema on her legs and elbows but we have been through all this with Ethan so we know the drill very well. It is something that will hopefully pass with time but until then we will just apply creams and continue the other precautions we have always used for Ethan. Glad to see my baby girl feeling better.