Viewers Beware...

Poor little guy, huh! We have had quite the trauma the past couple of months with our boys. Both Max and Chase have broken out into massive hives within weeks of each other. I didn't get pictures of Max though, I wish I had. The pictures of Chase actually look pretty good compared to what he really looked like. These pictures were taken after an epi-pen shot and the hives had really gone down.

Max was the first. I got a call from the school nurse at 9am saying that Max had a stuffy nose and that he just wanted to go back to class. I thought, "She's calling me about a stuffy nose!" Then around 1pm the nurse called again with a little more concern in her voice and said, "Uhhhm, Max has broken into hives and you need to come and pick him up." So I was thinking, "Hives, no big deal." When I arrived the nurse was on the phone with a panicked look on her face, talking to a pediatrician, wondering if she needed to give him an epi-pen or to send him to the ER. I was thinking, "What in the world? Epi-pen, the ER? What a crazy nurse! It's just hives!" (Keep in mind I hadn't seen him yet.). So I turned around and the poor thing was absolutely covered in massive hives from head to toe. His nose, ears, and eyes were swollen, with raised flowered patches literally all over. He was so calm and takin' it like a man. If it were me, I would have broken into sobs thinking I was going to die. Luckily, his breathing wasn't bothered, and we headed over to the pediatrician (with Aubrey and Chase). Right when the doc. saw him she said, "Uhhm, I'll be back. He needs an epi-pen." So by this time school is out and Clint dropped Madison off at the doctors and had to go back to work. So there I was with all four kids...one happy family! We ended up being there for about three hours for observation. His hives started to go down, but he still broke out on and off for about three days.

Then about a week and a half later I checked my phone around 9am and had a message from Max's teacher saying that his eyes were really swollen. Then literally a second later Clint called from work saying that the school nurse had called him saying that she had given Max an epi-pen and called an ambulance to take Max to the ER. By this time I didn't know whether to pop the nurse in the chops for overreacting or to panic because this time it must be really serious. So I pawned Chase off to my dear friend, Jeannette, and off I went to the school. Sure enough there was the ambulance with my puffy-eyed, little guy inside. There was definitely no need for an ambulance, but to follow procedure they had to take him to the ER to be checked. The ER doc basically said he could be allergic to anything under the sun and good luck trying to find out (Hey thanks!). So his regular pediatrician said to follow up with an allergy specialist.

As for my little Chase-ter, he broke into hives the morning of July 3 and I was thinking, "Are you kidding me? What next?" So we didn't panic (unlike a certain school nurse we know), and decided to just treat him with Benadryl. It seemed to work a little bit, but by the next morning his hives had gotten much worse and he had fevered through the night. So I took him to the Urgent Care, because the pediatrician was off for the holiday. Chase was just screaming and crying because it had gotten so bad. Finally, by the third hour we were there, I told the doc just to give him the epi-pen just to control the outbreak, and within minutes it had gone down. We ended up being there a little over four hours. We were sent home with a couple of prescriptions and told to keep an eye on him. He ended up breaking out on and off for about a week, and was also referred to an allergy specialist.

That brings us to today, I finally took the boys to see the specialist. To make a long story short, the doc basically thinks that their outbreak was caused by a viral infection. Max will still go back for further testing only for seasonal allergies, and Chase is good to go. I have to give my little guys a hand, they really handled all of this like a champ! Let's cross our fingers that we have seen the end of those blasted hives, and hopefully the school nurse can take me off speed dial next year! :)