Andrew had a fever Tuesday night and these red bumps on his legs Wednesday morning. The doctor said it was a reaction to the amoxicillin he had been on for almost a week. By the time we had our doctor's appointment it had spread up onto his tummy and arms and by that evening it looked like this.
You should have seen it the next day, it was even worse! Bulls-eye welts all over his body! If you are really curious as to what that looks like, look up serum sickness. The doctor I had to see on Thursday because my doctor wasn't in told me it was either serum sickness or erythema multiforme. He figured it was the latter and told me I could probably stop giving him benadryl and didn't really give me too much information. He said it could be a reaction to a lot of things. Andrew's regular doctor was surprised I had stopped giving him benadryl. She said it was for sure a reaction to the medication and he had a serum sickness reaction. The pictures on the Internet look exactly like his rash. I love his doctor! She is genuine and she cares!
And by today it had covered his head. Poor guy! His joints, hands, and feet were swollen and at one point his eyes were almost swollen shut. He was itchy and so so miserable.
His doctor prescribed him some oral steroids and they seem to be helping. I am sure the doctor's office was so sick of me calling and asking questions but I was so surprised that the red bumps on his legs turned into what it did. I hope he just keeps getting better and better. It is so sad to see him like this!
3 comments:
I just came across this blog entry while Googling "allergic reaction to amoxicillin." My 9mo daughter had the same issue--on the medicine for over a week before the reaction set in. The poor girl is covered in the same sort of rash that your poor kid had. She was prescribed the medicine by an ER doc (we're waiting on Medicaid approval since we recently moved and I haven't found a job yet...long story you could read a bit about on my own blog if you want...) and when I took her back to him he said it might be a reaction, to get her Benedryl and also Lotromin (cause she had a supposed fungal rash on her groin and legs that came about after the amoxicillin). He never gave me a dosage amount and I had to figure that out on my own with research. How long did it take for your son to clear up? My baby girl is the happiest baby in the world and is only mildly annoyed by this rash, but it hurts me seeing her like this. I want it to clear up and I wish I could have found a different way to treat the throat infection she'd had that led to the prescription of antibiotics in the first place...right now she's tossing and turning in her bed but she's not crying. Did your son's rash itch? I guess I won't have any way of knowing how it feels for her.
Oh my goodness... I am so glad I found this post! :) God answering my prayers for sure. I have a 3 year old little boy who has the EXACT rash, and same symptoms as your little guy. Gavin was on Amoxicillin for 10 days and within an hours time he went from fine to not walking, complaining of horrible pain in his ankle, to a rash all over him! His ankles looked like they had golf balls under the skin on each side of his foot. His knees where red and swollen and by the time we got to the Dr.'s office his elbows were red and swollen. They gave him an intramuscular dose (actually 2 shots) of Decadron (a steroid) and some Benadryl. We weren't sure if this was HSP (Henoch-Schonlein Purpura) or Serum Sickness. I wasn't convenienced it was serum sickness until reading your post! I couldn't get over his edema to only the joints... that made me lean towards the diagnoses of HSP! Thanks for taking the time to post this... I hope your little man is doing well! He's a cutie :)
thank you so much for posting this! My best friend found your blog for me, in hopes I could maybe talk to someone about SSLR. My 18 month old was just diagnosed with this 2 days ago, and is on day 6 of his symptoms - with no signs of improving yet. It took 7 drs, 3 ER visits, and a hospitalization to diagnose him. Labs today (Saturday) said his numbers were a little worse than Wednesday's, so it looks like we're in this for awhile. I would love to be able to chat with someone who has dealt with this, as I am feeling very helpless right now! thank you
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