Under Attack

Summer was cruising right along and then our household unexpectedly came under seige - by hives! Poor Aiden who has never had hives before woke up one night covered in them. The next day they were continuing to spread even after benedryl so it was off to urgent care. Another medicine later and we were home. Two days later, back to the pediatrician who changed his medicine again and sent us to a specialist. The pediatrician was sure it was an allergic reaction to something although we couldn't come up with anything in his diet or environment to account for it. A trip to the specialist and we were armed with the information it was viral. He'd had a runny nose for a few days before the hives showed up and she felt it was connected. More medicine to combat them and we were on our way home!

Thankfully, the new medicine regiment got the hives under control and life was able to return to somewhat normal... for a bit. And then Brendan got them.

With any kind of repiratory illness, Brendan's asthma gets aggravated and this little bug was certainly no exception to the rule. Luckily, we were established with the specialist already so we skipped all the intermittent doctor appointments and went right to them. They had done blood work less than a week before to determine some info regarding his asthma and it showed his body was fighting a virus so we were able to do a lot over the phone and to directly to the pharmacy for his medicine.

The timing couldn't really have been worse since he was loaded on medicine for the start of school and coughing terribly, but he made it the first two days. Unfortunately, by the third day of school he was covered in hives again so we went to the specialist instead of school where they put him back on steroids and also an antibiotic for bronchitis and an ear infection - as if the hives weren't enough! She also gave strict instructions for him to stay home from school that day (Thursday) and the next as well as skip his weekend soccer game so his body could rest. None of those instructions went over very well; so disappointed to miss school.
This was definitely one of the worst times they've been sick - not the 'cold' part of it, but the itching. I'll be more than happy for this particular illness to never darken our door again!