Pictures of Seth's Contact Dermatitis

Remember me posting about Matthew and Seth contracting something like poison ivy a few weeks ago?  They were officially diagnosed with something vaguely called 'contact dermatitis,' because it wasn't actually poison ivy but nonetheless clearly something that their skin had come into contact with.  New rashy areas continued to show up for thirteen days, in patches all over their bodies.  Matthew had it worst on his upper back/neck/abdomen, whereas Seth was most affected on his face and other, unmentionable places.

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Here's a close-up of Seth a day or two before the rash manifested.  Handsome boy, no??

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Then this...and these pictures were taken on day three of the rash (I couldn't find my camera on days 1 & 2!).  The first morning, one eye was swollen completely shut and on the second morning the other eye had mostly closed.  His whole face was swollen...eyes, cheeks, nose, lips, forehead, chin. These pictures of day 3 look seriously better than what it looked like on days one and two...but what a difference from the healthy face of the kid in the picture above...it looks like a different kid!

 

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Here are a couple of fairly close-up (goofy) pictures taken three days ago now.  You can see that, after more than two weeks of rashy skin, it's much better...in fact, the rash is basically all gone now and he looks like himself again, but there are sooo many odd-looking patches on his face that are going to take time to fully heal...it's a little leathery to touch (rather like Matthew's healing back).  It's only been in the last 24 hours that we can even put organic creams on Seth's face - prior to that even the most gentle creams stung his skin to the point of tears.  Poor kid!