I just wanted to post about something that was a bit of a trial in our lives. In about mid-August Alivia got some small red splotches on the side of her head. Right where her temple is. It wasn't raised like a regular rash and it wasn't very big or dark. When I first saw it, I didn't think much of it and I figured it would go away. Well it didn't. In fact, it started to grow.
Here are a few pictures of how it started out. You can see the spots on her face (kind of, its really hard to take a picture of an active one year old) and some spread to her chest and neck.
I talked to my family and decided to make an appointment withy my pediatrician and see what he thought. The only problem being that since Rob just started his new job, we didn't have any insurance yet. I told my pediatrician this and he said that he would work with me since we've been such "loyal patients" for so long. So I took her in and I can't say that it was very reassuring. Dr. Eberhard (our wonderful pediatrician) honestly had no clue what it was. We even went and spoke with a dermatologist to see if the two doctors together could come up with any idea and they were both pretty stumped. The dermatologist kept throwing out words like "auto-immune disease" and "Lupus" and it terrified me. He didn't say she had those things, but he didn't cancel them out either. The strangest thing about it all is that Alivia showed absolutely no signs of even being aware of the "rash." She didn't act any different. The only worry was that it was spreading. They both said to give it about a week and come back in if was still increasing or any other symptoms appeared. Dr. Eberhard said he'd like to do blood tests at that point.
This was not good news and I knew it was going to be a long week. I looked things up online and searched what this rash could possible be and what it could mean and it really just kind of scared me. I was so worried about my baby girl and the thought was always in the back of my mind. I actually got more scared at night because she wasn't with me; during the day when she was playing and acting completely normal, I wasn't as worried.
The next Sunday at church we asked a wonderful family doctor in our ward and he knew immediately when he saw it; he said it was Erythema Multiforme. It's a rash that forms from a reaction to a medication or infection. The only medication she ever had was Tylenol and there had been no infection that I knew of, so the trigger was still a mystery, but he was sure that's what it was and that it would just go away on its own. To be honest, when I heard this, I felt a great sense of peace. Like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I knew she'd be okay. But...the week went on and the rash continued to grow and grow. And my worry crept back in. I decided it would be nice to cancel out some things so I took her in to Dr. Eberhard for the blood tests. My dad and Rob gave her a blessing and it gave me the reassurance that our Heavenly Father was aware of our little girl and that he cared for her and loved her too.
Here is her rash about a month or so after it started. It may have spread a little more than this at its worst. I covered her face and neck the most, but her chest had quite a bit too. She was also get spots on her back, arms and a couple on her legs. It got to where people noticed just by looking at her and we got a lot of questions about what on earth was wrong with her. If only we knew.
Here she is at the Dr's office just after they took her blood. Poor poor baby. She actually did really well. She just watched them prepping her and didn't even protest until after the tube was in her arm. For some reason her blood wasn't coming out very quickly the first time, so they had to do it again so they could get all the blood they needed to do all the tests. She was screaming the second time and it took her awhile to calm down, but honestly, she did so good. Here she is with a sucker in her mouth and one in her hand. We were doing whatever we could to find something to soothe her. If one sucker didn't work, we tried another. ;) Such a big girl.
Not even 24 hours later, Dr. Eberhard called me and let me know the results. All was well as far as her blood could tell us. They checked for auto-immune diseases and they came back negative, white blood count was slightly high but nothing to be concerned about, potassium was a little low, but for the most part, everything looked normal. Big sigh of relief. It was nice to be able to cancel out things, serious things, and know that she was in the clear. Dr. Eberhard then advised me to make an appointment for a Pediatric Dermatologist down at Primary Children's for about a month out and if it wasn't going away by then, maybe she'd have a better idea of what it was. But he felt that since she had no other symptoms and blood results were normal, that maybe it was Erythema Multiforme and it would go away on its own. If not, we had a back up plan.
I scheduled her appointment for September 30 (Rob's birthday) and we watched her and prayed every day that the rash would go away. A week before I was pretty certain we'd have to go to the appointment and without insurance, who knows what we'd end up paying. (Dr. Eberhard didn't charge me for our initial appointment when we talked to the Dermatologist which was extremely generous of them both. We did however have to pay for the appointment when her blood was taken which cost us about $270). But on the Thursday before her appointment, which was on a Monday, I noticed that the place on her temple where her rash first showed up...was clear. It had totally cleared up there and a couple other places on her face were looking a little better. So I called and postponed her appointment for another month in hopes that the rash would continue to clear and if not, at least we'd have insurance when the appointment came around. Well, fortunately, it did continue to clear up. It was slow moving, just as it had been the whole time, but it was clearing up and looking so much better and now she is completely cleared of the mysterious rash. Yay!!
We're thinking we're pretty safe to assume that it was Erythema Multiforme, but what triggered it we are still not sure of. It could have possible been her immunizations that she got a month prior to it showing up. Who knows. But I guess if it shows up again, we will not need to worry about it and we'll know that in a couple of months it will go away. It sure makes me grateful for the health of my children and my family. I'm so grateful that our little Livvy is healthy and well. She's such a blessing in our family. It was a scary, stressful experience to go through and in the end there was nothing to worry about, but it does make us realize how blessed we really are.
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