Remember when Jace got an ear infection over Thanksgiving and we started him on antibiotics? Well, that antibiotic was amoxicillin and we started him on that Friday- 11/23. We gave it to him twice a day for about 5 days. He started acting much better the day after his first two doses and kept getting better...until he just started to decline in his attitude again. I was starting to wonder if the meds weren't working for some reason.
Wednesday night, 11/28, I saw a faint rash on his back and tummy. I was a little nervous about it and even asked a friend (who is a pediatrician) at church what she thought it was. She asked me if I had given him anything new and at that point - no, I hadn't. Didn't think about the medicine he was on since he had been on it for almost a week!
The next day, I go get him from his bed since he is sobbing and this is what I find...
Face, body, arms, legs, ears, head...you name it, it was covered in a red rash. I freaked out and called Justin crying. Then I emailed Jace's doctor with these pictures...not knowing what the heck it was! Then I came to my senses and had to send him a second email telling him that Jace was on the amoxicillin.
Our doctor is awesome and emailed me right back. Said it was an allergic reaction to the drug and to stop it immediately. Thankfully I had forgotten to give it to him the night before!
Since I thought Jace still might have an ear infection, I asked for an appointment that morning and got in an hour later.
At this point, the rash was at it's worst. Jace screamed the entire appointment, but he was given a steroid shot and we were on our miserable way.
He slept hard from about 10 am - 1:30 pm. Then he woke up...still miserable. Gave him some Benadryl and tried to get him happy. He just wasn't. The rest of the day I have no idea what happened because I was trying to get him to fall asleep or eat or just be calm. He was miserable - I was exhausted. So thankful Justin came home when he did. We gave Jace a bath and put him to bed. We hoped we were in the clear. About 10pm, Jace woke up screaming and we tried to calm him down...for the rest of the night until about 1am was him falling asleep in our arms, waking up immediately and squirming, crying & fighting against us. Finally I grabbed him and put him in the car so we could drive around Oklahoma City for awhile. Convinced he was asleep, I drove home and he fell asleep back in his crib. About an hour later, he woke up again screaming and acting crazy again. I wanted to cry - I was just so exhausted. We wrestled with him again and finally gave him some Tylenol. About 3:45 am is when he finally calmed down and about 4 is when he fell back asleep in his crib.
I'm not sure how Justin functioned the next day. Haylie woke up at some point that morning and I let her watch Dora in bed with me until Jace woke up around 9:30. Ugh.
He looked a little better, but still had lots of red spots on him...and it seemed like they were spreading out all over him. But he didn't seem to mind the rash as much.
On Saturday, he looked MUCH better and on Sunday you could barely tell he just had a major rash attack.
It was just a sickening experience. We knew there was a possibility that he could be allergic with him never taking this drug before, but never thought it would take almost 5 days to see the reaction. I am thankful our doctor ROCKS and is so responsive. I am thankful nothing serious happened to my baby boy and we only had one rough night. But most of all, I'm thankful he is feeling so much better and his skin looks normal again.
And now we know never to give him any type of penicillin again. Because neither one of us can handle it!
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