yuck, what is that?

Yuck, Caelen has 3 different rashes going on, nice huh?  He has folliculitis in his diaper area from playing in his pool, a viral rash which is contagious and pitikia which could have come from the virus.  When he does something, he makes sure he goes all the way.  The pic below is just the face rash and it's kinda hard to see, but he is a hot mess!  This was in the Wednesday Dr appt.  Dr. said it was just viral, leave it alone, it'll go away in 5-7 days and give benadryl 4x day.

On Thursday I went back to a different pediatrician in the practice b/c I had a feeling more was going on than just a viral rash.  The look on the 2nd Dr's face said it all, lol.  This was not something benadryl was going to help, so we got an antibiotic for the folliculitis and a topical for his diaper area.  He seems to be handling it for the most part.  He had to get a finger stick yesterday to check his white blood cells and his platelets.  WBC's were good and platelets were slightly below normal (131 vs 150 normal), so we go back tomorrow morning for another finger stick to see which way he is trending.  Hopefully up since the rash started on Monday.

This morning he got his hearing tested b/c the docs were worried that Caelen might not have full range in his hearing from all of the antibiotics and diuretics that he's been on.  Thankfully, Caelen passed all tests and his hearing is good.  Hooray for small miracles :)

I'm flip flopping back and forth b/c I have severe ADD today, but we also had a kidney ultrasound done yesterday and today for routine follow up before our nephrology appt this month, and blood draw attempts last Thursday and Monday for same appt.  I say attempts b/c Caelen didn't want to give up the blood.  We've destroyed his veins.  Not sure what to do for the blood work, but the kidney doc said we could wait a little while and figure it out later.  I have a feeling we'll be making an appt with Sam from the IV team at Children's.  Maybe we'll make a day of it and visit Caelen's favorite nurses.

Ok, going back even further in our recent history, Caelen got his first bloody lip a few weeks ago.  He fell mouth first into the coffee table.  Blood was everywhere and I gotta say, that one freaked me out.  It's weird how the big stuff like heart, kidneys, lungs don't worry me, but a busted lip and blood scared the heck out of me.  I guess it's the fear of "normal" kid things that I am only now starting to experience.  Thankfully, my friend Kelly answered her phone when I called and told me to put ice on it and hold pressure.  So I gave him a frozen washcloth that he ate for 2 minutes max and then went back to eating cheerios.  Clearly he was fine, and I was very happy that he clotted so fast considering he is on baby aspirin to thin his blood.  Here's a pic of the busted lip

and the bruised lip that followed

We are anxiously awaiting our appt with Kennedy Krieger on Tuesday for a feeding evaluation to see how Caelen is doing and see if they can offer any help.  I'll be sure to post their findings.  Other than that, we don't have a whole lot of plans this weekend, just gonna hang around and stay away from Drs as much as possible.

We hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!!!

Love, Katye, Martin & Caelen