Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Itch Itch, Scratch Scratch

Last Friday, the kids and I met up with family friends at a nearby park, for a picnic and for play time.  While Lizzie stayed mostly with me, my boys and their friends spent quite a bit of time in the trails and forested area surrounding the playground, building forts and hideaways and entrapment systems designed to keep other people out!  They had a blast.

After my friend left with her boys, the kids and I lingered for another ninety minutes, snacking on watermelon and tortilla chips with dip, and kicking around a soccer ball.

Two things of note transpired:

1.  My kids engaged in ninety minutes of play together - together - without fighting and, in fact, had a truckload of fun.  :)

This is not a normal occurrence for us, though their times of cooperative play have been lengthening a bit over the past several months.  They kicked the ball, tackled each other in good humour, crashed through undergrowth together, and generally had a great time inventing games and races.

2.  The boys contracted some kind of poison ivy-like rash.  :(

While still at the park, Matthew was quite itchy around the back of his neck and upper shoulders.  I couldn't spot anything unusual, so I just rubbed some creamy body butter into his skin to alleviate any dryness that might be causing the itch.  Twenty-four hours later, the itch manifested as a nasty looking rash in that same area.  Twenty-four hours after that, early Sunday evening, his forehead, cheeks, and torso also sported a maze of rash designs.

Monday morning, I took one look at Seth and gasped:  His left eye was swollen almost shut and much of his whole face was covered with a bumpy, welty rash - his face was totally distorted.  I wish I'd had my camera handy.  He said that his face felt a little funny and that there seemed to be a ball on his cheek just under his eye.  Uh, yeah, no kidding!  We were at the walk-in doctor's office by 8:30am and both boys were diagnosed with some form of contact dermatitis...not quite poison ivy but something similar...who knows what.

By Tuesday morning, both of Seth's eyes were swollen, his face was a mass of tiny bumps, and other (more sensitive) parts of his body were now affected and swollen; Matthew's wasn't quite so extreme, but definitely worse as well.  I called our family doctor and asked for a last minute appointment and we raced across the city to make our appointment on time.  Mostly I was concerned about his eyes.  Sadly, the doc had, really, no idea what it is - likely contact dermatitis, as the walk-in doc had suggested but something she was also unfamiliar with.  She gave us a prescription for a stronger ointment for non-facial areas of the boys' bodies and assured us that it wasn't contagious.

This is a first in our family...so far we've managed to avoid these kinds of things.  So the boys have been sucking back the Benadryl while I coat their skin with calamine lotion and a cortate cream and some prescription ointment.  The last two days have been a little quieter than usual, with the Benadryl making the boys kinda dopey...it's been interesting to see a side of Seth where he actually manifests a wee bit of tiredness!  We did go to the library, where one of the staff people (who's known us for a couple of years) took one look at Seth's bumpy and lopsided face and asked what on earth was wrong with him.  (Note:  if something serious had been amiss, that may have felt like a rather inappropriate question!)

Anyway, I'm sure they'll recover both normal looking skin and good humour soon.  And things do seem better this morning.  Thank goodness...'cause yesterday afternoon I almost made a tape recording of myself saying "don't scratch your rash" so that every fifteen seconds when one of the boys asked about scratching, I could just press 'play.'

8 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of boys! If there is territory to be explored or challenges to take - there they are! Poor things, there is nothing worse than an itch that you can't scratch. Poor Mama, who has to be the vigilant guardian of the skin!

    ReplyDelete
  2. THanks Missy! Knowing they're boys :) we've taught them what poison ivy looks like...but sadly, that's about the extent of my knowledge and even the docs don't seem to know what this reaction is from.

    Good news is that Seth looks a little less like a gangster today - swelling's down, dots are less intense, etc. And although both boys have new spots this morning, we now know that it takes 2-3 days for the yuckier side effects of them to reduce. So we'll be ok!

    Hugs,

    Ruth

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh poor kids- those rashes are never fun. I had the same thing this summer after berry picking(not poison ivy-which I've had a million times, but something different). My eyes were both swollen shut and it was between all my fingers... I was MISERABLE to say the least!!!
    I don't know if this is an old wive tale or not, but a friend told me that every time he is out in the bush, he rubs shaving cream foam on his legs/arms/hands and then wipes it off with a towel. Apparently this will remove the plant oils from the skin. I did it all last summer and didn't contact any rashes for the first time ever (too bad I forgot this year). Also, make sure to wash any clothes they were wearing, especially their shoes, as the oils can stay on them and re-infect them for up to 6 month (sigh...again this I learnt from first hand experience!!).
    Hope they feel better soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kristin, I'm sorry you had such a horrid experience! That IS miserable.

    This shaving cream thing - you rub it on before or after being in the bush??

    Yes, I've washed their clothes in hot water, but just thought today to also clean their sheets in hot water in case any of the plant oils got on there, too.

    Yikes - nasty stuff.

    Ruth

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like what we have going on Ruth! Taye has a bumpy itchy rash on the back of both elbows and we are treating the same. Have no idea what it is, it has not spread and is not contagious - drives him nuts when the cream wears off though! I think it is from contact with something while we were camping. I feel for ya with 2 itchy boys!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You rub on a handful of foam after being in the bush, and then wipe it off immediately with a towel. It's a bit messy, but it makes sense that it would take any residual oil off the skin.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks, Kristin!

    And Kendra, Taye, too?? Man, I wish I knew what caused it...not knowing if driving me a little crazy - though with you guys camping and my guys playing in the bushes/trees/undergrowth, seems natural to assume some kind of plant-based thing. I'm sorry you're having to deal with this, too. My boys have been manifesting new spots every morning for the past 4-6 days (in different areas of the body) but the early ones now seem to be fading...I'm not sure if b/c of the Benadryl or b/c it just has a lifespan of 5-6 days. I'll be curious to see Seth's face in the morning b/c that was definitely the worst of it all between the boys...poor kid looked like a gangster for the past few days, all swollen and distorted. Anyway, let's hope that both of our boys just get over this fast now!!

    Hugs,

    Ruth

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah I am sure it is some sort of plant based thing. Taye has random other little spots but nothing to the extent your boys seem to have. A couple on his legs, one on his wrist. I am going to give it a week as the elbows are showing some improvement and they were an absolute mess! If it doesn't show good improvement we will be making a dr appt for the third week in a row!

    ReplyDelete