We've survived our first trip to the ER for Willow! On Monday it looked like she had a ton of mosquito bites on her arms, legs, and belly which we figured was from being outside without bug spray on Sunday. That night she was up a couple times so it wasn't a complete shock when she slept in 1 1/2 hours later than she normally does. When she woke up though, Chris realized that they weren't mosquito bites because they had spread all over her body and onto her face! After seeing a pediatrician that afternoon, we were told that she had hives as an allergic reaction to amoxcycilin she was on for an ear infection. We stopped those meds and started giving her Benadryl. Last night (Tues) was rough for her. She was up at 1am with a fever of 101.3 then was shivering really bad. I called the overnight nurse from our pediatrician's office who said it may be chills. By the time I'd gotten off the phone with her, she'd stopped shaking and fell asleep. She was up again at 3:30 but there wasn't too much we could do since she'd had more Benadryl and Tylenol at 1:00 so we gave her more milk but she never calmed down and actually seemed really hyped up. All she wanted to do was read books and play with her shoes but she was very fussy. Around 4:30 we just brought her downstairs and played "daytime" but she couldn't get comfortable in our arms or lap, but didn't want to be put down. In looking at her in the light, though, we noticed that the hives were turning black and blue. In calling the night nurse again, she recommended we take Willow into the hospital. We began getting our bags ready when she called us back to ask a few more questions, then recommended we call an ambulance for possible meningitis. We were definitely in panic mode at that point. Luckily Willow calmed down in watching us rush around to get dressed and packed. Much to our dismay, the ambulance took FOREVER to get to the house. Willow remained very calm during the whole ambulance ride and I began to feel kindof foolish in talking with the EMT who said that her hives were not the color of meningitis and Willow was not showing any signs of an emergency. We got to the hospital and the doctor said she might have erythema multiforme due to the rash having a target-like appearance, purplish in color. We then looked at her belly, which hadn't been black/blue before but was completely, solid purple which took us all by surprise. The doctor said she'd never seen it that bad before (not very reassuring to hear from an ER doc!!). We had blood work done, which all came back normal, though not a fun process to go through. Poor Willow had an IV put in as well, but was taped to a foot-long splint to prevent her from bending her elbow, which she was NOT happy about! The pediatric ER doc came in to confirm the diagnosis but by that time her belly was back to red. She was given a prescription for a steriod and we were headed back home. Thankfully on the ride back she started talking and seeming more like herself. She took two good naps for us today, so we're hoping for a better night tonight. The hives/rash is definitely improving since we came home from the hospital. Here are pictures of the improved rash (if you could imagine it looking worse!):
Here is a pic of her face, MUCH better than it has been:
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