Spots!

Sunday bumps

  
   This is what we woke up to Sunday morning.  Spots.  All over her, but mostly concentrated on her torso and face.  My first thought was chicken pox.  She got her MMR/varicella vaccine a week and a half ago, and we had been warned about late reactions to it. I tried calling the pediatrician's office, but they don't have anyone answering the phones on Sundays.  I gave the families that had been at her birthday party the day before a heads-up, although thankfully all the kids had had their vaccines well in advance of Abigail.
    

Sunday bumps

   Obviously we couldn't take her to church, so Chris stayed home with her and let me go have some grown-up time at church.  When I got home, he said that she'd been a little less perky, and seemed to have a very low grade fever, but generally seemed okay.  We stayed in the rest of the day, just taking it easy and low-key.  By bedtime, I was doubting my diagnosis of chicken pox.  The bumps didn't quite look right to me.  I couldn't call the doctor until morning, so we went on to bed.

Monday bumps

    Our pediatrician has walk-in hours from 7:00 to 8:30 on Monday mornings, but the nurse hotline doesn't open until 8:00.  I was undecided if I was going to go straight in, or call the hotline first.  When she woke up this morning even splotchier and redder, I decided to go on in.  We were given our own private waiting room when we got to the office, "just in case."  By that point, she hadn't been running a fever for a while, but had started rubbing at her skin like it was bothering her, especially on her face.  (Who could blame her!?)  The doctor checked her out, and concluded that the rash was a reaction to her MMRV vaccine.  He described it as a "measles-like rash," explaining that this is the type of rash a child with measles would present with, but she would be a very sick little girl if she actually had the measles, with high fever, coughing, and often icky eyes.  This rash is not contagious, he said, but also isn't treatable.  We could give her something if she had a fever again, and we could give her Benadryl if it kept itching.  Otherwise, it just has to run its course.

Monday bumps

   I took her home and it was all downhill from there.  She pretty much cried all day, didn't nap for more than 20 minutes at a time, screamed like she was on fire if I tried to set her down to do anything, but squirmed and flailed when I held her.  In short, we both had a very bad day.  We were out of oatmeal, but I tried a baking soda bath, I tried essential oils topically, I tried Benadryl.  The combination of the three of them seemed to help a little, but she's still a miserable little speckled thing. She's in bed now, but still restless and cries out occasionally.  Last night she got up 3-4 times and needed me, hopefully we can sleep a little longer than that tonight.

   It's a scary situation when the things that are supposed to be protecting your health are detrimental to it.  I can't say that I 100% support the standard slew of vaccines as they are recommended by the medical community, and things like this make me so uneasy.  I don't know what she had the reaction to.  Was it a component of the serum?  One of the viruses itself?  Should I be concerned about future vaccines?  I know that this wasn't one of the life-threatening side effects that the scary pamphlets warn you about, but it is unnerving for me.  She's my baby!  And she's clearly ill!  You better believe that I'll be doing some research and asking a whole lot of questions before her next vaccines.

   So many people have called, texted, or Facebooked to check on us, and it really means a lot.  It's nice to know that we have so many people who love us and our sweet girl, and so many people praying for her.  Thank you thank you thank you!  Keep it up!