In Which Connor Finds Some More Polka Dots

So yesterday Connor started breaking out in what I thought was a mild case of hives.  He'd been throwing up a lot, and sometimes when he gets sick he ends up with a bit of a skin reaction.  So I was a bit unprepared when I walked in his room this morning to discover that he was completely covered, from feet to nose, in a morass of raised, bright red spots.  When a hefty dose of Benadryl failed to have an effect, I loaded him in the car and we were off to the doctor's office for the fourth time in the past three weeks.

I am getting really tired of going to the doctor's office, by the way. 

Anyway, they took one look at him and told me that he was sporting a textbook case of sulfa allergy rash.  Apparently he's developed an allergy to Bactrim, the antibiotic he's been on for the last ten days to treat his impetigo.  This explains all of the vomiting we've been seeing too.  Luckily today was the last day he was supposed to be on it anyway, so we're just missing one dose of the medication and hopefully his impetigo is gone.  It's kind of hard to tell right now since the kid currently looks like he's been splatter painted with red ink. 

So now Connor has a whole new class of drugs to add to his Avoid At All Costs list, along with amoxicillin and colace (and lavender of course, though that's not a drug).  I'm really glad that I decided in the end to take him into the doctor; I really debated about whether or not it would be beneficial when I figured it was a case of hives and there's nothing they could do.  I was right about that part-- the poor little guy just has to wait out the effects-- but once you get a reaction like that the allergy tends to really ramp up the next time you are exposed to the drug, and so if Connor had gotten his evening dose of Bactrim tonight things could have been really, really bad. 

So we returned home with instructions to watch Connor over the next day and make sure that he doesn't start having airway issues, and to keep dosing him with Benadryl to help with the itching and burning he's probably feeling.  We're supposed to get as many fluids down him as we can to help flush the drug out of his system.  The doctor said that hopefully the rash will be gone in three or four days.  The Benadryl is making the little guy drowsy as all get out, and he spent the entire rest of the day asleep.  I have to say that's probably for the best-- he looks extremely uncomfortable while he's awake. 

He's just been having a rough time of it lately!

~Jess