No More Moldy Bread for Eli

Disclaimer: Gruesome photos to follow. There is a happy ending, but if you're squeamish, take a hike. (Just don't accuse me of posting without pictures again :)

We had the misfortune/fortune (dependent on whether your a glass half full or half empty kind of person) of discovering that Eli, like his father, is pretty allergic to Penicillin. (And no, he didn't get exposed to it by moldy bread, as the title implies. If we ever found any moldy bread growing up, my dad would always say, "No big deal, just a little penicillin", so that's just what I always think of when I hear the word)
At any rate, it all started with a little, rash on his torso. It really resembled ant bites, but since I couldn't' find any ants in his bed (he woke up with the rash), I decided to ask a pharmacist. (Couldn't get into the doctor's office that day, and didn't want to wait through 4 hours of urgent care like the last time). The pharmacist asked if E was taking any antibiotics, and after I fessed up to his being on day 9 (of 10, I should add) of Amoxicillin, he hypothesized that E was reacting to his meds. I wasn't worried. It didn't seem to be a big deal. He wasn't itching or running fever, and seemed to be normal, other than the rash, so I didn't sweat it.
The next day, it had spread a lot! I didn't feel as comfortable as I had before, so we went ahead and took him into Urgent Care. The doctor walked in the room, took one look at him, and declared that he had a "more convincing penicillin allergy reaction than some textbooks photos" he'd seen. He said there wasn't much we could do for him, other than Benadryl to control the itching (which still hadn't started).

The next few days, it got progressively worse, and was accompanied by a fever which responded well to Tylenol and Ibuprofen (it would go back to around 102 in between doses)
Around day 4, he started itching. The Benadryl helped some, but seemed to stop working a couple hours before I was allowed to give him more, so I'd do my best to distract him. (If he wasn't thinking about it, it seemed to bother him less than if I, say, put him in his bed and left him to sulk). We spent many a late night (2-4am) waiting out those Benadryl doses. Look at how thick those welts are around the leg hole of his diaper. Poor baby!

He was a real trooper. I know I couldn't have handled it as well as he did. He never really cried, except when he was really tired and unable to sleep for itching (between Benadryl doses)











Days 5-6 were especially bad around his eyes. He didn't even look like himself. Thankfully, he never lost his appetite.













Finally, Day 8 came...Eli discovered Norah's magic wand and....









Voila! No more rash! (That's just strawberry jam around his mouth) So, from now on, no more penicillin for the boy!