Red and Splotchy

A few Saturdays ago, Mommy noticed a bug bit on my face.  Wanting to prevent another swollen-bite-disaster, she quickly gave me a dose of Benadryl.  The bite disappeared after a couple of minutes...leaving Mommy more than relieved.

Only minutes later, though, another bite surfaced on the other side of my face.  It lingered for a while, then disappeared.  It took several more repetitions of this cycle for Mommy to figure out the the "bites" were actually hives.  I'd never broken out in hives before and Mommy new I hadn't eaten or worn anything new, so she couldn't pinpoint the catalyst for my breakout. 

Four days later, the hives still weren't any better.  They were dormant as long as I had Benadryl in my system, but once the medicine wore off they'd rear their ugly heads.  My pedi told us that this was a normal length of time for hives to persist and to keep administering the Benadryl every 6 hours.

Things were looking up when a few days later I was able to go about 8 hours between Benadryl doses.

Then I hugged Daddy as soon as he came in the house from mowing the lawn. 

Within minutes my face and arms were red all over. 

As soon as the pedi's office was open Monday morning, Mommy put in another call and set up an appointment.  She was already into her fourth day of work at that point, though, so Mimi had to accompany me on this little visit.

After a quick strep test came back negative (my throat was a little red and the pedi said hives are sometimes a result of strep), the Dr. Hull decided that she needed to draw blood to rule out any strange viruses.  If you've ever watched Mommy "brush" my teeth, you know that drawing blood from my veins is no small feat!  I was strapped to a papoose, pricked in the arm (where my veins rolled), and pricked again in the hand (where blood was successfully drawn)...all the while crying and asking Mimi to let me "out, out, out".

Mimi has told Mommy several times that she should consider herself fortunate to have not been at this particular doctor's visit!

Even though I was a screaming tot for the actual blood draw, a yummy sucker and some cuddlin' was all it took to calm me down.

 

Thankfully, my blood work came back clean.  Per the pedi's instructions, Mommy and Daddy have been giving me 1 tsp of children's Zyrtec each day.  We'll try this route for two weeks.  If the hives come back after two weeks, I'll be referred to an allergist...which means more bloodwork.

 
Obviously, we're praying that those hives are never to be seen again! 
I'll get my last Zyrtec dose on Sunday night...so stay tuned for more details.