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.