Thursday, May 22, 2008

Friends don't let friends google late at night

Dino had a nasty cough for 3 days. It was mostly at night and he had a mild fever but not much else. Since my younger daughter had a reaction to Motrin at a very early age, I have always been weary of giving anything other than homeopathic 'cures'. The cough was starting to disrupt our sleep, severely. I tried rubbing Vick's Vapo Rub on his feet and covering them with thick socks--cough, cough, cough--I tried this fantastic cough helper from Whole Foods--cough, cough, cough--finally on the fourth night (and less than 12 hours of sleep total), I asked the wonderful husband to run to Target and get Shower Soothers; these are little tabs you put in the shower and they dissolve giving off a vapor to soothe coughs. It seemed to work until about 3 am and he was coughing again. 

The fantastic husband wakes up with him and brings him to the shower. I walk in to help (because I was not able to sleep with the coughing) and I notice he has rashes all over his back and a very flushed face. Both husband and I look at each other dumbfounded. 

"I'm looking this up," husband runs off to the Mac.

I get him the shower with another Soother and notice he is a bit warm. His fever was on and off this entire time but he had been fever free for two days. This did not feel good.

"Lisa, "hubby runs in the room. "Did he ever get his MMR?"

We are on a delayed schedule due once again to reactions my daughters got early on. You know that reaction 1 in 10,000 get--we are that one. So we are on a delayed schedule and refuse some vaccinations  like chicken pox and get the very serious vax shots (like polio) first. The MMR was not at the top of our list.
 
"Um, no. "My eyes are wide open, "The doctor wants us to wait until age 4 and then split them out."

Our doctor remembers the reaction.

"Well, it's measles, just look."

I scurry off to see the computer and see he googled Cough + fever + rash. One cause according to Web MD--measles. And there's more--measles are highly contagious and very dangerous for the very young and very old. I think of my dear sweet Spanky sleeping soundly. Was he in danger? I google even more--measles are equal in horror to the plague, cancer and heart disease combined, at least that's what I read in my sleep deprived state.

We dry off Dino and I spent the rest of the night looking up measles and symptoms and it all makes sense. He has measles. 

In the morning, Dino wakes up, no fever but still spotty. I get him the shower with another soother and I notice more spots. Poor kid--first chicken pox, now this.

I call the nurse. I explain the symptoms. She tells me she can make no judgement over the phone. We need to come in. I ask about something for his itching.

"A rash doesn't usually itch,"she says. "Where did the spots start?"

"Well, "I struggle to remember--I had been up since three afterall--" He had some big ones on his stomach but now he has a bunch of bumpy ones on his calves and feet."

"Rashes don't usually travel."

She then asks if he has been around anything new or taken anything new.

Nothing but the Shower Soothers.

"He is having an allergic reaction. He has hives. Give him some Benedryl and see what happens."

The husband rushes out to get the Benedryl.  Dino reluctantly takes it within 15 minutes the 'rash' is gone.

Our house now has two new rules.
1. No more Shower Soothers for the kids.
2. No googling illness symptoms--we are calling our doctor first.

11 comments:

Lizz @ Yes, and So is My Heart said...

Oh, that so could have happened to me. Nothing like the middle of the night to make one think clearly, or not.

Glad he is feeling better.

Purple Teacup said...

Thank God!
BTW, I am paranoid too. I've had friends put my first and last name on their blogs and I'm like "NOOOOOOOO" but here I am with no blog kid names. LOL I think I just like having a secret identity.

Jacque said...

I hope the cough is better, and I'm glad the rash wasn't anything serious! I always invent terrible illnesses when we are sick, usually thanks to a medical book I look things up in. ;)

Alyson said...

Hi. Thanks for visiting my blog. I do love the movie Super Size Me. So gross.
I am learning how to live simply and naturally. It is a process for me.
I am all about delayed vaccinations as well. I have friends whose children still got the disease after the vaccination!!

KC said...

Oh no.. I'm sorry he is sick and about the reaction..
but I have to say I giggled over the google.. OH you don't know how many time I have done that over the years.
Hope everyone is feeling better soon and you all get some sleep..
I have had a nasty night time cough for a week now DH also.. but 3 of the 4 kids have had it for two weeks.. I'm half tempted to run one if not all of them to the doctors to see what it is.. but normally I do that and it just ends up being nothing more then a cough I pay the doctor and am sent on may way and they are still coughing there heads off.. So I wait..

mah-meeee said...

oh... poor baby! trying to cure one thing lead on another. :(

i too am an offender to webmd my children everytime something is wrong.

(but then again, i am the paranoid one in my family...)

glad that the rash is gone! hopefully he'll kick the cough soon!

have a great long weekend!

Miss Lisa said...

Thank you all so much for your well wishes!
Ironically Dino had stopped coughing the morning after the hive attack :)
I'm glad I'm not the only paranoid googler!

Melissa said...

Oh using Webmd or looking up symptoms can really play with your head. we have done that many times and we always think something is worse that it is. But it is hard not to want to see. But good for you for looking it up and calling the doc!

3boys247 said...

Sorry he is sick but that post was too funny. It's kind of like looking into a mirror but my obsession is with DrKoop.com. I am glad I am not the only one who is practically a doctor.

JCK said...

Yikes, what a rollercoaster! So glad he didn't have measles....

Texasholly said...

Oh my goodness. You guys are so funny. This could have happened to me too...but this could land you on Dr. Phil again...