As many of you already know I've been worried about my youngest son who had a massive and mysterious rash. He came home from a friends house earlier in the same and discovered that his second finger had a minor swelling on it. We all just shrugged it off thinking that he may have come in contact with some sort of allergenic. An hour later he showed me he had a whelp at his waist ..raised and red. Okay so now maybe it's an allergic reaction to laundry soap but no other rash in other spots. Within another hour he had this rash in nearly every spot including hair line and scalp. Still thinking it was a reaction to laundry soap we gave him benedryl and sent him to bed. By morning the rash was worse and he started to spike a fever. OFF TO THE DOCTOR!!! Here's where it starts to get a little insane: we are a one car family. When we bought the car we had no idea that I would at some point be in a wheelchair. Family road trips are no longer an option because it's a 2 door SUV and in order to get my chair in the back end, the backseat has to be pushed down. So, dear husband I entrust YOU with the care and monitoring of our son. Be sure to tell him the following things which include the fact that I had given him aspirin several days before for a strained muscle.
Since I had a doctor's appointment at the same time I opted to keep mine in favor of continuing the progress I've made with my leg. In my mind this was a no brainer for my husband and I trusted him despite both my mom and my instinct.
The diagnosis was allergy to coast soap and the flu/cold. Okay...well now we know, right? By the next day everything changed and he was worse. Off to the doctor again but this time a different doctor. I sent my husband, again, entrusting him to be open, upfront and detailed with the doctor. THIS time the new doctor diagnosed Reyes Syndrome which I had suspected the day before but ignored as my over thinking and making mountains out of mole hills. The biggest factor was how badly, if at all, this disease had attacked his liver and so we waited for lab results. I was told by husband that the blood work would shed light on whether or not he actually had Reyes so we waited and waited and waited some more. It's funny how long time really is when you need answers but the people in charge are not playing fair. Maybe this is what expectant fathers felt like in the waiting rooms as countless mothers pushed and labored to produce the fruits of her 9 month long "bun" cooking? In the mean time my son was put on a round of prednisone and told to avoid ALL products containing aspirin, including peptobismal. When I was growing up it was standard operating procedure to issue St, Joseph's Childrens Aspirin for fevers and pepto for tummies. Funny how we think something is harmless and blindly give it to our kids to help them and it turns out it could actually kill them.
The long and short of it all folks is that my son does indeed have Reyes Syndrome brought on by aspirin use in close proximity to a viral infection. The good news is that his labs came back normal and we may have, in fact, started treatment in enough time that it will not become fatal and be more of a bother at best. Today he is feeling some better. Getting his appetite back. He shows no signs of confusion, has only a slight fever (from 102 to 99.6) and when he is not napping he seems alert and clear. I really really hope that this means we dodged a serious bullet but I guess time will tell. For those of you who don't know what Reyes Syndrome is, I've linked it HERE I've got a long road ahead of me to keep informed and on top of the endless list of products containing aspirin. My knee jerk response is that if it's not tylenol it doesn't go into his mouth and even that is suspect because tylenol is known to cause liver issues. As for the husband who didn't give me all the details.......I'll leave you with this.
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