Tough times

Poor Eliza has been having such a tough week. It all began with a diaper rash that wouldn't go away. I finally took her to the doctor and he prescribed a powder to put on it. After a few days it still wasn't improving so I took her back in and the doctor determined that she must have something else going on that her body was trying to fight off. He thought she might have a sinus infection. Although, how you diagose a screaming one year old with anything is beyond me. So we started a round of Amoxicillin and I was told to call back in a few days if things weren't improving. Well, not only were things not getting better, they seemed to be getting worse. As some of you may know, antibiotics kill bad bacteria as well as the good bacteria which tends to cause diarrhea. Let's just say that after a couple of doses of her medicine, Eliza was awoken at night in a most unpleasant way that required a complete change of clothes and, on a few occasions, a bath including shampooed hair. Anyway, you get the idea. She had practically no appetite and it was all we could do to get a little bit of fluids in her to keep her hydrated. When I called the nurse to tell her what had been going on she said that the antibiotic must not be killing the alleged sinus infection and that they would call in a new prescription for an antibiotic called Cephalexin. Feeling a little hesitant to give her more medicine, I started the new antibiotic on Saturday morning which was followed by more of the same side effects. By Sunday night I was so tired of all the medicine that I put plain old zinc oxide on Eliza's diaper rash and Monday morning, it was all cleared up. Go figure. But that was not the end of her troubles. Monday afternoon I noticed that a few red spots had shown up on her tummy and back. I thought she might be having a reaction to the new antibiotic and so I skipped her nighttime dose and just hoped it would improve by morning. I got quite a shock when I got her out of her crib Tuesday morning. She was covered, head to toe, in a red rash. The doctor couldn't see her until 1:30 that afternoon so I spent the morning worrying about everything from measles to roseola to anything else I could find on the internet. Thankfully, Matt was able to take part of the day off to be home and help me take her to the doctor. Turns out I was overreacting just a bit and she had developed hives due to an allergic reaction. I think it looks a lot worse than it is. We're 90% sure it was a reaction to the Cephalexin and the rash should improve over the next couple of days. It is really itchy and all I can give Eliza to help is a little Benadryl every few hours. The good news is that today the rash seems to be improving and will hopefully be all gone soon. Eliza has been remarkably patient and good through all of this. I am so thankful to have such a sweet, good-natured daughter. I don't think I would be half as pleasant as she has been these past days if I was going through the same things. What a sweetheart!