Thursday, February 15, 2007

The Itchy & Scratchy Show

Not much diet stuff to report on today except I didn't go to the gym and I didn't eat much. Agnes had a severe reaction to a prescription of Amoxicillin that she was taking for an ear infection.

I noticed hives all over her legs yesterday when I took off her tights. I called the doctors office to ask them about it. The nurse was a complete *itch. She told me it was the tights and I really should have washed them first. Then she added "Next time you will think twice about not washing her clothes before she wears them or YOU can wear the tights and get the hives.” Every time I tried to explain what I was seeing (hives on her legs, butt, privates, and hands) to her she kept saying “Just give her some Benedryl. It's the tights.” She wouldn’t except anything but the “tights theory”. Not once did this nurse ask for my name or Agnes’. A call that lasted less than 6 minutes made me feel like the dumbest mother on earth.

Okay, maybe I was overreacting. We all overprotective with our kiddies. I called Sean and asked him to pick up some Benedryl. By the time he got home she had these huge bumps ALL over her body. We called after hours and made an appt. for today.

We wake up and they are 1000x times worse. Her entire back, stomach, legs, arms, and some of her face are covered in welts. The poor thing was in hell. We called to see if they could get her in earlier and were told no. Guess what? Wrong answer! We packed her into the car and went anyway. Screw them! We get there and we are taken back to an exam room within minutes. I told the doctor about my phone call with the nurse and she was PISSED! She said she was going to find out who talked to me because it was an obvious reaction to a medication and the outcome could have been a lot worse. And, who threatens a mother with an allergic reaction?

She asked us about our allergies too. Sean isn’t allergic to anything (LUCKY!). I am allergic to Penicillin, Sulfa Drugs, and Steroids. Allergies aren't genetic but if I have them Agnes is more than likely than not to have them. The doctor had 5 of her partners come in to check it out too. They all said it was one of the worst reactions they had ever seen. She prescribed a bunch of stuff for Agnes and it has started to help. A lot of the bumps are going down and she isn’t scratching so much. Poor Baby.

What makes me the angriest is the person I talked to wouldn’t listen to me. If she had Agnes wouldn’t have had to gone through 24 hours of hot, itchy hives. I wanted to find the woman today to say “HA! See, I wasn’t overreacting you stupid cow!”
But, for now I will just cuddle up with Agnes knowing she is going to be feeling much better tomorrow morning and hoping the woman I spoke with wakes up with hives head to toe.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Poor Miss Agnes. Next time listen to your gut, not the dumb ass nurse. Also, a pharmacist would have known that hives would be a reaction to amoxicillan.

I just had the opposite with Nathan when he was a baby. I thought he had prickly heat all over his body. When I called the nurse's line at Children's Hospital, they said it sounded like a viral rash and to bring him in.

We got there, and again the nurses said, "Viral rash." The student doctor was almost convinced by them until the head teaching doctor came in, took one look at Nathan and said, "This is the worse case of prickly heat I've ever seen. Don't dress him so warmly at night."

Then she proceeded to bring in a half dozen students to see a stunning case of prickly heat.

Bottom line? Mama always knows! Kisses to that girl - she's getting so darn big!