Hives

So we just had our first sort of medical mystery/scare with Grayson. Last week he came down with a little cold, but just had a little runny nose and nothing else. Then all of the sudden when we got him out of bed Sunday morning he was covered in large red welts. It was so alarming! At that point they were just on the areas inside his footy pajamas, but none on his hands and head. We actually thought that a bug or spider was in him jammies biting him all night because they looked like tons of bites. We immediately called the doctor who told us it sounded just like hives probably due to the cold virus, and that they would go away. Grayson and I stayed home from Church, and by lunch time they had faded some, so I was feeling better. I put him down for his afternoon nap and figured he would be even better when he woke up. Wrong! When I got him up after his nap it was WAY worse. Now he was literally covered from head to toe in those bite looking welts! So scary! He had them on his face and ears, and his little hands were puffy. At this point we thought the doctor had to be wrong and that something was attacking him while he slept. I was picturing bug bombing the house! We made a Sunday afternoon visit to the Vanderbilt walk-in clinic to see a doctor in person. After seeing his poor little body and agreeing that it looked quite alarming, this doctor too told us that there was no way this was due to actual bugs, and that it indeed was hives caused by a virus. He prescribed allergy medicine and said it would be better in a few days, but to expect it to get worse each time he got warm like when sleeping. We were still freaked out, but feeling a little better. On Monday I called our pediatrician just to give him the run down of what had happened over the weekend. He couldn't see us, but wanted another doctor in his practice to see us in person just as a precaution. This third opinion also diagnosed viral hives and suggested adding Benadryl during the day to help them stop popping up during nap time.

I was too worried the whole time this was unfolding to take pictures of how bad it actually looked. This was Tuesday night when they were all going away just to give you a little idea. By Wednesday he was totally clear! Praise God! I hope it never happens again!