Rough Few Days

Saturday Eli woke up with a few bumps on his legs and face while we were visiting my mom. I thought they were just bug bites at first but more and more started showing up as the day went on. Saturday afternoon I also noticed that his feet were swollen. I called the on call nurse at our pediatricians office and she said to start benedryl and to bring him in if he got worse. So we just watched him and he seemed to be doing ok. He didn't like walking on his swollen feet but the benedryl did seem to help with the itching.
On Sunday he woke up with no change. He wasn't worse but he wasn't any better. We were supposed to go to my nieces graduation party at a park but I figured the heat wouldn't be good for his hives or swelling so we headed home early. On the way home I had to pull over on the side of the road because Eli was getting sick. We made it home and he perked up a little but we noticed he had a fever. At this point we were getting worried and planned on seeing the pediatrician in the morning.
Sunday night as I was giving the boys their bath I noticed Eli's feet were not only swollen but also turning blue and purple. With all the different symptoms we couldn't ignore it so off we went to the ER. Mike stayed home with Jude since it was already after 7:00.
Once at the ER they checked him over and told me he had hsp, a virus that causes blood vessels to swell. Most of the time it is caused by an upper respiratory infection which he did the week before. They got a urine sample and took some blood to be tested. Eli didn't cry or even flinch when the took his blood. I couldn't believe it. He was so brave. I am sure it helped that they gave him a Popsicle. The lab work came back clear so after being there for 3 1/2 hours we headed home. Eli was quiet as we headed home but it was almost 11 so I figured he was tired. I carried him in the house and not 2 steps in and he threw up all over me. We got him cleaned up and cooled off until he could have more motrin and got him to bed at 12:30. He slept restlessly. I checked on him 2 different times he was covered in sweat both times but didn't seem warm to the touch. At 4:15 he woke up crying. I got him to the bathroom and he threw up. This time his vomit had blood in it and that was one of the things they said to bring him back to the ER for. So we headed back at 4:30am. The checked him over and asked a bunch of questions but since that was the only difference and it wasn't a lot of blood they weren't concerned and sent us home with instructions to see our pediatrician the next day. So we headed home and were there for 10 minutes before he puked everywhere. We started doing motrin and Tylenol to try and keep his fever down because every time his fever would spike he would get sick.
We saw our pediatrician where Eli puked all over himself and me. Dr J basically said to let the virus take it's course. Eli spent the majority of the day with his fever spiking around 103.5-104 and then he would throw up. He finally started to turn a corner after nap. His fever would get down to 101 with motrin and 102.6 with Tylenol, so a definite improvement. And since the fever didn't get as high he hasn't been getting sick. Hopefully that means the virus is on its way out of his system. Here are a few pictures I took while at the ER.
Hanging out in the ER


His swollen feet


This is what his hives looked like


Cooling off with a popsicle


Having some juice after they took blood


It was a long night for my baby.


- Posted by Jenni using BlogPress from my iPod Touch