1.06.2009

POOR BABY

My poor sweet baby is covered in a mystery rash. On November 19th Alivia woke up with an ear full of sticky, yucky goo. I took her to the doctor & found out that her ear drum had burst (ouch). She was put on an antibiotic for 10 days. On the very last day of this treatment she broke out with a mild rash on her back & belly. I totally blew it off, not thinking it was a big deal at all. About 4 or 5 days later I took Alivia in for her 6 month well child visit. Her ears were still red but we opted not to put her on another dose of antibiotics so soon. The rash did concern her doctor though. She immediately ran her down to see the other doctor in the office. They both confirmed that it was probably 1 of 3 things; an allergic reaction to the antibiotic, eczema, or yeast. They told me to get some hydrocortizone & monistat to apply to the affected areas. So I did but her rash wasn't getting better. In fact, it was getting much worse. Her doctor wanted me to bring her back by in about a week to check on things, so I did. Alivia was actually seen that day by another doctor (3rd doctor). He told me to try some benedryl creme if in fact it was an allergic reaction. He also checked her ears that day & decided to try another round of antibiotics because her ears were still pretty red, this one being a 5 day dose. So I did that, but her little rash was now a BIG rash. Just over a week ago I took her back to see the 3rd doctor again & he gave me a couple of prescriptions. Neither of them worked at all. Finally I decided to get her an appointment with Ainsley & Addison's pediatrician (something I should have done in the first place). He was baffled!! He said it was hard to make a proper diagnosis mostly because we had tried so many different treatments & nothing was working. He wasn't sure if something could have been working at some point & if something else aggravated it at the same time, so we did a bunch of things. First, he scraped parts of her rash with a scalpel (yes, I did say scalpel) & put them on a slide to look at with a microscope. Second, he swabbed her rash to do some lab testing. Third, he took her blood to get a CBC level & a zinc level. WHAT THE... The zinc level was taken to see if she may have a zinc deficiency, the scraping & swabbing was to try to determine what the heck we are working with, & the CBC level was just a precaution. So for right now we are treating her BIG, GIANT, HORRIBLE RASH as extreme eczema with a bacterial infection. If things don't clear up within 2 weeks, he is sending her to Salt Lake to see a pediatric dermatologist. He also mentioned it could be a bunch of "weird, crazy things". Nice! We are hoping for extreme eczema at this point. My poor sweet (chubby) baby!!!

14 comments:

Tara said...

Oh that picture made me cry for her! POOR Baby! Is she miserable? We've had the eczema rash, roseola rash, slap face rash, allergic reaction rash, and fifth disease rash but that looks plain weird!!! Brody seems to always have allergic reactions to med's. We usually have to get a steroid shot to stop the rash.....It seems to go for WEEKS! Good luck and I hope they figure it out SOON! I want to hear the final diagnosis.
Tara

Zack and Victoria said...

Poot little girl! And the horrible rash set aside, that last picture is adorable. Good luch with everything!

The Quarnbergs said...

What the flip? You know after you guys recommended Dr. Bennett as a Dr. I always take my kids to a pediatrician. Not that almost all dr.'s down here are idiots, cause they aren't all the time :) only some time, they just don't always know and those dr.'s up there specialize in kids and why not go to a dr. that does that? I hope her skin gets better soon!

Hone Family said...

Oh my Gosh that rash is so sad. She looks happy though what a cutie even with a BIG rash. Hopefully they figure it out soon. Good Luck. Maybe I need to get the name of your pediatrician I have been thinking about taking my kids to one too.

Linda said...

Oh my heck! That is quite the rash! I sure hope they figure it out....and soon!
We have had a lot of different rashes over the years, but that one is a real doozey! Good luck- and btw- she is still adorable even with the rash!

Tweeb and Danyette said...

Oh my heck that is way worse than I had pictured in my mind. I agree with you that it looks like 2 totally different kind of rashes. She seems to be happy in despite of it all. She is so adorable

Jeannie said...

She is so cute even through all of that!

Kim said...

Awwwwww, poor baby! I hope it clears up really soon. It's true, she really does still look like a cute, happy baby in spite of it all.

Dawn Rae said...

Ouch! Poor girl. It sucks too when they can't talk to tell you how bad it hurts, what helps, etc...I hope they figure it out soon. Rashes are a tricky thing, everytime I take my kids in for one they say something brilliant like "looks like they have a viral reaction." Really?! I think for the most part they guess on them and hope for the best. I bet the skin doc will know what to do though.

Brooke said...

Poor thing!! I'm so sorry, it's so hard when we can't do anything for our babies. Oh, and aren't we sooo glad that Cammy found Jami (the totally awesome hairdresser) and passed her on to everyone!!? Where would we be if Cammy hadn't found her?

Stephanie said...

Oh that is that saddest thing ever. Aidan is allergic to penicillin and broke out in the worst rash I have ever seen when he was 9 months. It is the most helpless feeling when you don't know what is wrong or what you can do to help them. You shoudl bring her to a specialist in Salt Lake for sure. We have great Dr's up here! ANd then you could call me for lunch! lol

Angee Leishman said...

Oh how sad!

Autumn said...

That is so sad, I hope by now she is doing better. Bless her little heart that look like it hurts.

Jami said...

Oh Misty! How sad! I feel so bad for her and for you! What a terrible rash. Dax just got an antibiotic for his ears so hopefully that won't happen to him!! Good Luck!