Bring on the sickness

As of the first week of March, Mackenzie got her fifth ear infection since September. As always we went to the doctor and she was put on Amoxicillan as always. She was on the medication for a few days before she went to Grand Rapids for the weekend. I ended up picking her up on Monday night instead of our usual Sunday exchange. What I saw next completely shocked me.

My poor little girl had big pink spotches all over her face and neck. She told me that they had started Sunday night when she went to bed and were really itchy. My first thought was that it was simply allergies acting up, the weather had been nice and she had been playing outside a lot all weekend, bring on the pollens and molds. But by the time we got home it was worse and even worse the next morning. Being the bad mom that I am I still made her go to school and called the doctor from work. That evening at the doctor's office we got all the questions I had already prepared for: what has she eaten lately, what did she come into contact with, changes in laundry soap, etc. I explained to the doctor that she had been gone but I had done my homework and contacted the G.R. family and asked them all these questions. Next I stated, 'well she was here last week for an ear infection and is currently taking Amoxicillan for it'. The doctor's eyes got wide and he started flipping through her record. Turns out his son had the same problem not so long ago so it was still fresh in his mind- an allergy to Amoxicillan. We had to stop the antibiotic and she had to take Benedryl for a few days. The worst part about it was the fact that it took four days for the hives to clear up and during the four days it actually got worse, spreading over her whole body including her palms and bottoms of the feet. Ouch!!!!

So I write this a warning to all the other parents out there. Apparently kids can develop an allergy to a medicine if they take it too frequently. If you have a kido who frequently gets sick and takes the same med everytime, discuss this with your doctor. Thankfully her reaction wasn't life-threatening but just unpleasant.