Gemma's Latest Weird Illness

Around Thursday of last week, Gemma suddenly got hit with some sort of stomach bug.  I went to get her Thursday morning only to discover that she had thrown up all over her crib.  She did not vomit anymore but had awful diarrhea constantly for several days afterward.  She finally seemed to be feeling much better when suddenly on Tuesday afternoon, Cy noticed that she had a rash on her neck and under her arms.  Since she has broken out in hives from food allergies several times before, we assumed that this was more of the same, but we could not figure out anything different she might have eaten.  The rash got worse throughout the evening, but we bathed her, put some hydrocortisone cream on the worst spots, gave her some ibuprofen for the discomfort and put her to bed thinking she would be looking much better in the morning.

When she woke up, though, she looked much worse.  The rash was all over her stomach and back (it looked like one big blotch) and had spread to her face a bit - one of her eyes was almost swollen shut.  We decided to take her in to the pediatrician.  I had an OB appointment schedule for 9, and Nana was on her way to watch Gemma.  I wanted to make sure Gemma was okay, so I called and canceled my appointment and then Nana ended up sort of caravaning with us as we went to the pediatrician and then afterward, in search of various medicines.

We were glad that we went ahead and took her in.  Apparently this outbreak was not food-related, and was something different.  The doctor said that she has erythema multiforme minor.  It's basically a freak skin reaction that can be caused by an allergic reaction to a drug, or as a reaction to a virus.  He thought it was caused by whatever GI thing she'd had the week before.  There is a "major" form of this rash too that can be very serious, but he was sure that Gemma just has the minor version.  He said there was not much we could do other than treat the itchiness/swelling of the rash with benadryl and hydrocortisone cream, and use Tylenol/ibuprofen to keep her fever under control, and wait for it to run its course.  And then he told us that it could potentially take WEEKS to completely go away! Yikes!  Poor little Gemma is miserable and we are miserable watching her swollen and itchy from head to toe - I really hope it does not take weeks to clear up.

We felt better after going to the doctor and starting her on some Benadryl and ibuprofen.  However, the next morning when she got up (day 3), she looked even worse.  Her face looked like this:

And her feet were so swollen that they had turned purple and she could barely walk without holding onto something.  Throughout the day, the rash around her mouth kept getting worse and it was looking very streaky so I was starting to worry about infection.  And her feet just kept swelling.  So we decided to take her back in to the pediatrician just to be safe.  They were able to squeeze us in at the very end of the day to see her regular doctor.  He was not worried about her condition and did not want to put her on steroids because he wasn't convinced they would help.  He did give us a bit more information though which was very helpful and reassuring.  He said that bruising is very common with this and that she would probably have quite a bit of bruising because she was so swollen in places.  Also, apparently the pattern of this rash is to start out as dots but then gradually grow more loopy.  So what I thought was streaking was actually just the rash getting "loopy."  And apparently it sort of migrates.  So, she might have it on her chest and then a few hours later, that might be cleared up but it will show up on her face.  Fun times.

Today is day 4, and Cy and I both felt like she was finally looking slightly better this morning:

Her face is still very red and blotchy but seems less swollen.  Her feet and ankles are still purple but they too seem less swollen.  Her hands are slightly less swollen.  She still has splotches all over the rest of her body, but at this point, we are happy for whatever progress she is making toward getting better.  And it's looking like another day of watching movies most of the day for us because all she wants to do is sit around and cry (and I don't blame her).  Here's hoping that in a few more days she'll be feeling a bit more like herself.

Also, after just dealing with something fairly minor like this for even a few days, I feel so much sympathy for parents of chronically ill children (and of course, I feel for the kids too).  I have a couple of friends with children who have very severe problems that require ongoing treatment and some really tough decisions to be made by the parents.  We have been hurting for Gemma so much just watching her suffer through what is a relatively mild and (thankfully) temporary thing.  I can't imagine going through what some other families are going through, and yet they are some of the strongest people I've met.  This has made me thankful yet again that aside from allergies and being underweight, Gemma is overall very healthy.  I am praying and hoping that her little brother will be born strong and healthy too.