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Monday, November 18, 2013

Mystery rash

Thanks to our dear doctor friends (one of whom made a house call—on his day off, no less) we've determined that Benjamin is suffering from either eczema or hives. It's not too serious...though we'll have to be watching for triggers now to see if he's allergic to anything. I can't think of anything particularly out of the ordinary that he's come in contact with/eaten recently.


He doesn't seem too bothered by it.


My friend Addi suggested that it might be fifth disease (since that's going around) but he doesn't have a rash on his cheeks (other suggestions were roseola, which Miriam had, and which I think Benjamin has already had, and measles (which is rampaging around in southern Alberta) but I think we're pretty safe from that) and the rash was mostly confined to his stomach.

But another friend looked up fifth disease since her daughter had the bright red cheeks indicative of fifth disease and has come to the conclusion that not only is her daughter suffering from fifth disease—she, herself, has it! She was sick with a high fever last week and recently began experiencing joint pain and was worried she was developing rheumatoid arthritis or something. Now she's hoping it's just fifth disease and will go away...in 1–3 weeks to a few months. That's still a long time to suffer from constant joint pain, but I suppose it's better than always suffering from joint pain.

She said stumbling upon the conversation on facebook was an answer to prayer.

I love small miracles like that. Like finding an answer in a facebook feed. Or like having a friend volunteer her doctor-husband to make a house call on his day off because you're at home worried about your baby but just can't bring yourself to face the outside world (Miriam was not in the mood to leave the house and I wasn't in the mood to make her and because your baby desperately needed a nap and you needed to be home to meet the school bus) and because you didn't want to go into the clinic again (between our trip to the ER and the follow-up visit, I'm quite confident we spent eight hours at the hospital/doctor's office last week (so much of the waiting (which probably explains why Miriam dug her heels in when I asked her to get dressed so we could take Benjamin to see her friend's dad, the doctor))).

1 comment:

  1. I used to see your cute Miriamisms on Facebook because I followed you there (kind of like Twitter, I guess), but I haven't seen them in weeks now. I figured you thought it was creepy or something - or else you just stopped posting there. Regardless, I used to like reading the funny things Miriam (it was usually her) said.

    That's not really related to this post except you mentioned FB, and I have been thinking I'd not seen you there in quite some time.

    I hope Benjamin is feeling OK. He seems happy despite the rash. And hooray for doctors who still make house calls!

    Hope you have a restful day!

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