oh my god my child is swelling!

[Boco]

dd2 woke covered in a rash today, which was confirmed as a reaction to penicillin this morning at the doctors.

Throughout the day it's been getting worse, her whole body is now covered in freaky pink and white swellings. It seemed to be getting better a couple of hours ago, then suddenly her face ballooned and her lips swelled up.

Just did a mad dash to the out of hours doctor and got steroids - he said her throat isn't swelling and chest is clear, and steroids should make it go down, but to go to hospital if anything changes.

She looks so bizarre - no way i'll be getting much sleep tonight!

Anyone elses dcs had this? Do the steroids work quickly? Can i stop following her around staring at her and shrieking with horror?

Oh dear - i'll watch out for that, thanks.

Oh Boco, I have absolutely nothing of any use to add, but just wanted to sympathise over what a crap time you and your dds are having at the moment. I don't do hugs, but if I did, you'd be frist in the queue.

Could it be something else triggering her reaction ds has this with his allergies and once given steriod injection and epi-pens it goes it only comes back if he has been re-exsposed to allergen.
Must say when this has happened he's been admitted.
Hope you have a better night.

oh boco! im SO sorry to read this and see what an awful time youre all having. scary shit man!
im miles away, but seriously, if there is ANYTHING i can do, in rl i mean, just let me know. even if its just to send a couple of surprise balloons in boxes to the dd's (and microwave dinners and a bottle of something to you and dp!)...
hang in there kid, am thinking of you

Oh God Boco. I have been offline for ages so have missed all of this!

You really have been through it lately haven't you? Lets hope this is the last of it for you.

How are your girls today?

Hello - IG how are you, was wondering where you've been.
NG thank you - that's so kind xxx

We had a really good night, best for ages, dd woke up at six and her skin looked great, no itching, very calm. Noticed though that her bottom lip is slightly swollen, and she's complaining that her teeth hurt. I can't see anything in her mouth, her lip swelling isn't like the dramatic all over swelling of the other night, its just slightly plumped up and darker red.

Came down and started googling stevens-johnson syndrome, which was a mistake! Dp says its hardly noticeable and says i'm being neurotic (thanks dp) Will just have to watch it - maybe it is only noticeable to me as her mother, if it becomes any more obvious i am going to go to that hospital and have a breakdown as another day of this is more than i can stand!

DD1 is absolutely covered in chicken pox - but absolutely full of energy!

If anyone could arrange safe passage out of the country and respite by a team of trained allergy consultants, please cat me?

STOP GOOGLING! you know how worried that made you last time when DD2 had to have scans etc. Just stop it!

Lets hope she's over the worst of it now, and that she shows more sign of improvement today. GFingers crossed.

POther that al the drama, how are you? We are all fine, apoart from DS1 being a little bugger.

I know i know - i need to block google (although there'd be a lot less local crime solved if i did .)

You're right, but with this particular drama things have been moving and changing so fast that it's impossible to just switch off and stop fretting. The first time her face and lips started to swell, it happened in seconds. Feel like i need to be informed and prepared. [manic stare]

Glad you're ok - were you taking a break?

No, our computer was up the swanee.

But it;s ok. The curtians are drawn, the house is a mess and the children are being neglected. So it's back to normal chez walrus

Thanks KM, that's really helpful, - i'm contacted them.

I haven't posted before Boco as I had absolutely nothing helpful to say other than poor you, but just wanted to know how glad I am to read that things seem to be improving for you.

Have been reading this and thinking of your poor dd a lot.Hope all gets better and that you are ok.

Hope your dd is a bit better today boco. Lol at google and crimes!

glad to see DD is somewhat better today

Glad you has a better night Boco. Btw I didn't realise there was much crime in down town Eye.

no the skin problem doesn't normally last that long once you remove the allergen and treat them, that's why I was worrying about other things. As she's responding to the antihistamine I think it suggests that it was an anaphylactic reaction but that the steroids made it worse. Note anything she eats carefully as if you do get a flare up it may suggest a problem with something else.

I'v noticed with my child that she reacts more to allergens when ill. This makes sense to me because the immune system is obviously under strain already with a sick child. The paediatrician said he didn't know anything about that - but then he really didn't know much about allergies at all. Hopefully as your child recovers from her chicken pox she will continue to improve.

It does make sense about them reacting more if unwell. Do you think it should be fairly easy to get my gp to refer to an allergy clinic? (i kmow that's probably a stupid question as you don't know my gp) - just felt like he didn't take it very seriously - just gave me the steroids and said it'd be fine, and it wasn't - which has made me a bit jumpy.

SoMuch - Eye is a hotbed of crime. The sandwich board outside the newsagent recently had local news headlines about 'vicious youths kick chickens!' The Eye parish news has a crime report every month. Often there are as many as 5 crimes in any one month, including 'grafitti on local bench', Mr Brown once had his glasses case stolen from Maynards the chemist (no actually that one was solved - he'd left it at home)

glad normality is resuming

well what passes for normality when one has kids of course .. nasty little vermin aren't they just full of disease .. really we should all just keep stuffed parrots .. its far safer

one day maybe gps will get some allergy training and then they won't have to learn from their patients. It's not usually easy to get a referral but as you've had to go to a&e he might be feeling guilty and ready to give you almost anything .

Even if you do get a referral it will take months and you'll probably have to see a paeditrician with an interest. If there's one of these clinics within 100 miles try and get referred to one of them www.bsaci.org/clinics.html

Tbh I think there's a pretty good chance that if you stay away from penicillin you'll never have anything like this again so I doubt they'll give you an epipen. Some parts of the country are less likely to give them than others. Allergy testing would be comforting though.

Hi Boco, I think your GP owes you and your family an appology, you should report him tbh as the next victim may not have questioned it & I would hate to think of the consequences.

Your GP has to refer you to a specialist, he cant not.

Hills x

I emailed the anaphylaxis campaign (thanks kerrymum) - and a woman got back to me and said that i should definitely push for referral to allergy clinic, so will try for that when my gp gets back from his holiday.

Its your dd's rite boco! No asking about it!