June 06, 2007
wtf is THAT?
When it rains, it pours.
Today my mom came and woke me up around 6am. My son had broken out into the weirdest rash all over his legs, stomach, and arms. It looks like chicken pox, but he's already had them. Not only that, they don't itch like crazy and they showed up over a period of about 24-48 hours. Oddly, my mom was much more calm about by son looking like he'd been tied to an ant hill and draped in honey. She wanted to send him to school, since he showed no other signs other than just weird bumps all over.
Me, on the other hand, freaked out. "OMFG! They're small pox!" Which wasn't as funny then as it is now. Actually, I knew they weren't small pox, but my mind is wired to jump to the worst possible conclusion just to avoid surprise and disappointment. Ebola was up there on my list too, but since he wasn't running a fever of a billion degrees or bleeding from any orifices, I figured that one was a long shot.
I took him to the doctor. I planned on going anyway, since my sinus infection has returned and I feel like crap again. So we took a happy family outing to the clinic--at 7:30 in the morning.
I couldn't believe how many people were there. At least 3 in front of us and another three or four behind us. Strangely, I ran into one of my ex-coworkers. He was one of the new guys, hired on right before I left, so I didn't notice him right away. He said my name and told me everyone was sad I gone--then asked me if I knew the address for the company. LOL irony.
Anyway, the doctor gave me a severe scolding about my high blood pressure, but told me it had come down quite a bit since my last visit a month ago. Again, irony. I told my son it was probably because I no longer worked for 'that place' anymore. I wasn't joking.
The doc looked at the kiddo and was baffled. He had no clue what the hell was going on. The bumps aren't poison oak or ivy. Nor are they chicken pox, though he said they sort of resemble them. But since the kid isn't itching excessivly or running a fever, he really wasn't sure what to make of them. In my head, I'm thinking "Check for Anthrax!" The only thing he could think of was it could be from my son swimming in the lake when he and my family went camping last weekend. Sometimes rivers and lakes have 'bugs' (bacteria, fungus, parasites) that can cause this sort of thing. There really isn't any treatment for it. Basically he said, just keep an eye on them. If he gets more and they start festering, then bring him in so we can culture them.
Great.
Just looking at him makes me itch. He has none on his face--for now--which I find wierd. I'm wondering if he is allergic to something? But they really don't look like one of those, "My detergent doesn't agree with me" rashes. They look like chicken pox. I guess for now, we just wait and see...
UPDATE!
The kiddo's bumps are worse. Not in the fact he's gotten more of them, but they look like they're about to pop. GROSS! I told him he had worms in his body--dead worms. That grossed him out pretty good. * evil smile *
Posted by Zoso at June 6, 2007 01:43 PMNobody is likely to get this reference to a musical phenominon from the early 90's but I have to try anyway:
"They couldn't quite explain it... it'd always just been there. mmmm mmm mmm mmm, mmm mmm mmm mmm..."
Posted by: decemberice at June 6, 2007 02:25 PMYou're right. I don't get it... :(
On another note, his bumps are worse. He doesn't have more of them, but the ones he does have are HUGE! I think I shall take pictures and post a few here...
Posted by: Zoso at June 6, 2007 03:53 PMWell, the song is from the Crash Test Dummies, it was really popular for like a summer in the early 90's and there is a portion of the song where they sing about a girl who wouldn't dress down for PE in school and when they finally made her they found little marks all over her body, and nobody could explain it.
Anyhow, enough of my useless knowledge. Have you considered asking Askville if any of them have seen it before or might know a good sight to research the symptoms on?
Posted by: decemberice at June 6, 2007 05:00 PMThey... uh... look kinda like zits to me. Looks kinda like what i had 5 years ago when i hit puberty, except they were more on my wrists, shoulders, and face (bleh! lol) try popping one and see what happens. This is of course coming from me and i know nothing (literally nothing) about these kind of things. My solution for bumps like that is to get a pair of tweezers and pop em.
Posted by: NightEdge at June 7, 2007 05:55 PMThey aren't zits and the doctor specifically said DO NOT pop them. It is a rash of some sort. Today he has more of them, mostly on his belly and shins. Zits don't show up suddenly like this, or all over the body the way these have.
The look like chicken pox. It's very strange.
Posted by: Zoso at June 7, 2007 06:17 PMthe mmmm, mmmm song. Who can forget it. It's up there with the girl in the bee suit....
anyway - I say it's time to go back to the doctor and demand a culture.
I am of the firm belief that if I have something I don't really need like - like strange lumps or weird rashes - there is no logical reason to "wait and see" when there is a test available to tell me what it is....
I would venture it is something from the water since you say he doesn't have any on his face!
Posted by: sarah at June 7, 2007 07:46 PMI'd be more inclined to take him back if he was actually suffering from them and he was covered in them. They itch, but not so badly that he's scratching them all the time. He has no fever or anything of that sort. So far, he has nothing on his face and very few on his back. The worst are the ones on his arms--which look awful. There are a bunch on his legs too, but those look like they're going away.
I figure I'll see what things look like tomorrow. I'm pretty sure this is something he picked up from the water. Looking at some pictures I found on the net and reading up on this Swimmer's Itch thing, it sounds pretty much the same.
He's pretty mad at all of us because we didn't tell him you could get stuff like this from swimming in the lakes and rivers. LOL
Posted by: zoso at June 7, 2007 08:30 PM