Scary, part 2

We ended up in the ER again last night.  Erik's hive got significantly worse yesterday afternoon.  For the early part of the day they were primarily all over his legs but between 3 and 5 pm they spread across his chest, back, neck, and face again.  He wasn't having the same respiratory issues but it seemed like it was heading in that direction so back to the ER we went.

I should mention that he got a total of 68 mg of Benadryl during a 22 hour period yesterday (maximum allowable dose was 75 mg in 24 hours) and his hives got significantly worse despite that. 

In the ER we saw the same PA who quickly went to get the ER doctor.  She was concerned and consulted the pediatrician (no peds ER here).  Anyway, the pediatrician felt it was unusual, but not unheard of,  for the hives to get worse after a dose of decadron (he was given that Friday night).  The pediatrician suggested they give Erik a 30 mg "bolus" of prednisolone and then keep him on it for 5 days (15 mg bid).  In addition we need to keep up with the 12.5 mg of Benadryl every 4 hours until his hives are gone - never going over 75mg in a 24 hour period. 

They sent us home with the instruction to bring him back if we hadn't noticed improvement by 11 pm and they would admit him overnight - primarily for observation in case he developed respiratory symptoms again.

He fell asleep around 9 pm on the couch. At 11 pm things looked about the same/maybe slightly better so we tucked him into bed (Victor slept with him last night). 

This morning he is better again.  Most of his hives are from his butt down.  His face and neck are pretty clear and there are only sporadic patches on his chest and back.  I am hopeful that the steroids will be the fix and it will only get better from here.  I will let you know.  We are supposed to take him back to the ped tomorrow for an ER follow up visit.

To make this weekend even more fun Lainey is also sick.  She has had a cough/cold for 2 weeks.  I checked her ears on Thursday evening and noticed they looked red but kind of forgot about it until we were back in the ER last night.  Thankfully, the PA just added her on and confirmed a bilateral ear infection (#6) so she is now on Omnicef.  Hopefully, soon our kids will both feel better and start sleeping again.

Here are a few photos of ER trip #2 (no tears from me this time)...

 It's hard to see on these stellar photos but basically his entire face was covered in hives along with his neck and large areas of his chest, back, arms, legs, butt, and groin.

I think that my sweet, although recently-temperamental boy, may get just about anything he asks for this week.