Thursday, October 29, 2009

Graham Woke Up Early From His Nap

Because of this:





We have an appointment today in about an hour and a half to get his rash checked out. For the past 3 weeks we have been hit with stomach bugs, terrible coughs, runny noses, high fevers, tiredness, and now a hot to the touch, welty rash.

Graham hadn't been asleep more than an hour when he woke up moaning and half crying from his nap. I went in to check on him and he was still obviously very tired but was rubbing his ear a lot and saying his hand hurt. I laid down with him on my chest for a few minutes and laid him back down after he fell back asleep. A few minutes later he was calling for me. Defeated, I got him up convinced that the poor kid had some kind of ear infection since he's had runny nose and cough with fever in between for the past 2 weeks. It wasn't until I had him in our room in the sunlight that I noticed that his cheeks were bright red and there was a rash to go with it. Then I noticed stripes on his neck and it wasn't until Jon got home that I checked the rest of his body and noticed the rash under his arms and diaper area.

So, what is this? Is it an allergy to something? Is it ANOTHER illness we have to get over this month? The only new thing I've done was try some fabric softener in a wash load the other day. Only the pants he is wearing were washed in that load. Nothing else new. Is he suddenly developing a rash to peanut butter? He had some on a sandwich for lunch. Or is there some other allergen lurking somewhere that I need to discover?

The Parkers are really tired of dealing with sniffles, hacking coughs, stomach bugs, fevers, rashes and any other illness floating around. We are ready to feel like healthy, normal people so we can do normal things. Ewan has this week off from school and I was still planning on doing school with Isaac in the mornings and incorporating some other fun things into the week. We can't get out in the afternoons if someone is running fever! We've had to take 2 days off of school because Isaac's been running a high fever for 2 days. Tomorrow we were planning on going up to Scotland for a family fun day. But with fevers and random rashes it looks like another fun activity has to be thrown out the window.

I'm hoping that maybe we are getting all the winter illnesses right now and then we will be nice and healthy the rest of the season.

So, enough of the doom and gloom. How's your week?

**Doc said it was a histimine and that it could be caused by anything or nothing even. He said that sometimes the body's histimine blockers get out of whack and you get hives. He is taking an antihistimine and it helped most of the welts/rash go down. So, I'm hoping that it a random occurence and that we won't have to go hunting for allergy sources. I had a lot of trouble with allergies and hives as a kid and I don't want him to have to deal with the same thing.**

7 comments:

Kelly said...

Poor Grahamy! Let us know what the doctor says it is....my co-workers say it's tinea (fungal infection).

Grace H. Lin said...

Poor little guy!

Praying for protection and healing upon your family.

Monica said...

Poor little guy. I hope it doesn't itch too badly. I know the feeling of being quarantined--and with no real "yard." Will pray.

You should look for some local honey. Honey that is local to your area (usually within 100 miles--but you would have to deal with kms now I suppose!) is supposed to help build defenses against allergens. (It's not allergy medicine or treatment, but over time, it is supposed to help.) I know you are all being exposed to lots of new things there. Just a thought.

Hugs those sweet boys for me.

Mimi & Papa said...

Oh my! Bless his heart (and yours!) He looks miserable. My first thought was hives also. I've heard the thing about local honey. We did that with Jon when we first moved to Dallas....he had a lot of allergies and asthma. As I recall the honey helped.
We are praying for you all!!!!!! Keep hanging in there. Victory is on the way!! Don't let the enemy win this battle cause he'll just keep on the attack. Keep on kicking him out!! Love from your fellow warriors in battle,

Sharon M said...

I think the hardest part (for me) moving overseas was not language or cultural acquisition -- it was the germs! The Miller house was constantly getting sick our first year in the Middle East. I don't know if the viruses (or bacteria) are particularly nasty here, or it's just a different strain than what our bodies are used to in the US. I agree with Monica. We ate local, RAW honey when we were in JO -- can you believe we actually found a natural food store there?! -- and I think it helped. Praying for y'all!

TheLudlows said...

Praying for health for the Parkers.

jcbrown208 said...

Poor sweet baby! I am so sorry Graham has such an uncomfortable rash! Hopefully, it isn't a food allergy and you can start eliminating soaps and other things that might cause a rash. In case you don't remember what caused your rashes and welts, you "rashed" at mountain cedar, high mold spore counts in the air, and tree, grass and weed pollens that were very high. If it is pollen, a bath might help him if he starts itching (in case he has been outside and has been hit with a blast of pollen) washing the pollen off of his skin and hair will help. Also, I washed your coats, sweaters, and outerwear more frequently when things were pollinating or when it had been raining for lenghthy periods of time. When I was a child I had rashes and huge welts on windy, dusty days on my arms and legs (I suspect that it was some kind of pollen blowing around but wasn't tested until I was an adult). Also, green chilies and avocado are also some of our family allergies. Local honey is a great idea for help with allergies. Prayers and hugs, love you all so very much.