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We had a scary "incident" with Aidan on 4/10 that required us to take him to the emergency room. All of the background leading up to it........


On the last Sunday in March Aidan woke up with gunk in his eye, and honestly I didn't think too much about it because his eyes run often and I assumed his allergies were acting up. As the day went on it got worse, and then his other eye started looking strange as well. Took him to the doctor on Monday, and he had pink eye in both eyes. He looked so pitiful, but fortunately, didn't really feel bad. On Tuesday morning he started saying his ears hurt. His ears were clear the day before and he didn't really act like he was in pain. I dropped him off at mama's and told her to call me if he got a fever or if he complained about hurting. Late in the day the fever hit, and he felt terrible. Took him back to the doctor and he had double ear infection on top of the pink eye he had in both eyes. Started him on antibiotics that same day and he was feeling better by the next day. Five day course of eye drops for the pink eye, and 10 day course for the ear infections. At the end of the 10 days, 4/9, I took him in to have his ears rechecked, and they were completely clear! Thank goodness! He had been pulling at them a little bit the couple of days before, so I was afraid the meds had not completely taken care of it. The next day was Saturday, and we were out and about doing our normal thing. I changed his diaper (yes, we are still in diapers and not really progressing along the potty training path!), and noticed he had a small rash right around his diaper tapes. They just changed the way the diapers are made, so I thought that was causing the rash. We got home in the afternoon and he started telling me his rash hurt. Me being the terrible mother that I am, quickly told him that it was from the diapers, and if he would go on the potty, then the diapers wouldn't hurt anymore. Terrible thing to say!!!! Then I noticed his knees were red on both the front and the back, and it looked like he had come in contact with something that didn't agree with his skin. We were going to go outside to play, and when I put his shoes on I noticed his knees were swollen. When I stood him back on the floor he could hardly walk and was telling me it hurt. Okay, you now have my complete attention and I am concerned. Andy called the nurse and she advised us to take him to an urgent care with a pediatrician on staff or Wake Med's children's emergency room because he could be having a reaction to his antibiotics (even though he had finished the full 10 day course the day before). I have no idea if there are any urgent cares locally with a pediatrician on staff on a Saturday night!!! We just went to Wake Med. Of course, Aidan falls asleep in the car on the way there, and I am panicking about whether he is asleep because he is tired or if this is related to the issue with his legs. He wakes up when we get there, and is not very happy because he can spot a doctor's office from miles away (literally!). There were not that many people there, and it was very nice to be in a kids only area. The staff was very friendly, and were all really good to Aidan. The triage nurse checked him out initially, and put even more fear in us when she said she needed to put some cream on his hands to numb them because she felt for sure he would end up with an IV. So, what exactly are you telling me???? As she was checking him out (who knew they made blood pressure cuffs so small?), I noticed his elbows were turning red and were also starting to swell. We didn't have to wait long before they called us back, and Aidan handled it pretty good. The doctor came in almost immediately, and checked him out. We really weren't being given much to go on, so our minds are just racing about what is happening and how the rest of the night is going to go. She did feel confident that it was not an infection, because you would not normally have an infection in multiple joints at once. She wanted to put in an IV, take blood and give him some motrin for the swelling and pain. That was yet another thing that scared us. Did this mean that they thought it was something really bad and he was going to have to stay? Two nurses came in to do the IV, and they were wonderful with him. Fortunately, one of them held him down so I only had to hold his hand and try to make him feel better. He knew I wasn't the one doing it to him. He actually handled it much better than we expected, and the numbing cream they had put on in the beginning made all the difference. They wrapped it up really good when they were done so he couldn't pull it out, and he liked the bees on the bandage. :) Within about 20 minutes of getting the motrin we could see he was starting to act more like himself, and his knees and elbows were already looking better. They told us it normally took about an hour to get the blood results back, so we were prepared for a long hour. The doctor was great and when the first results came back in about 30 minutes, she came in to let us know. The initial round looked good, but his white blood count was slightly elevated. She thought he had had some type of virus and that was the reason why. We still had to wait for the results from the others tests, and those were the ones that would show if there was something "really" wrong. Still, not really giving us anything to go on. One of the nurses came in to let us know she had started 101 Dalmatians, so if Aidan was interested she would turn it on for us. He was immediately interested because he loves dogs!!! Soon after we got the results from the other tests, and everything was completely normal and there were no problems. So why are his joints swollen then? She couldn't really tell us, and just recommended we give him motrin every 6 hours for 48 hours and follow up with our pediatrician on Monday. ???? She went to get the paperwork started for discharge and another doctor came in. Again, extremely nice and very friendly to Aidan. He started giving a few more details and explaining things better, and kept mentioning a rash would be present with certain things, etc. We mentioned the rash to him (had already told everyone else), and it immediately got his attention. He looked at it, and said "Well, now I know exactly what it is, and the rash is a very good thing." Big sigh of relief! He could without question say that it was a reaction to being on the medication, and that it would probably last about a week and may even get much worse before getting better, but it would go away. He said it was very common, and he averages 3 cases per week. He was very aggravated that the other doctor had not mentioned the rash, and seemed very surprised. We were able to leave a little after 10:30, and we were very happy but still concerned. Aidan slept very good that night, and woke up the next morning like nothing had happened. No rash, no swelling, nothing. ??? Did we dream all of this? I continued to give him the medicine all day, and then called his doctor first thing on Monday. I didn't give him the medicine then because he was fine, and the second doctor said we didn't have to as long as he wasn't uncomfortable. As we waited at the pediatrician's office, I could see the rash starting to pop up again and his joints started swelling as well. This scared me all over again. The doctor gave the same diagnosis as the hospital without even knowing what they had said, but she classified it as an allergy to the medication and marked his record so he would not get it again. She put him on steroids and benedryl, and said it shouldn't be permanent. Well, this scared me too. Shouldn't be permanent? You can't tell me without a doubt that he will get better and have no lasting effects from this? Fortunately, the benadryl and steroids worked, and he was perfectly fine with no trace that anything had even happened. Another advantage to this course of meds was that it made his tick bite go away as well (Aidan got bit by a tick about 3 weeks before all this, so of course, that was eating at us as well!!!!!). As bad as all of this was, Aidan really learned that doctors are good people who are there to help. He knew the doctor fixed his eyes, his ears, and then his legs. He doesn't seem to mind going now!!! I thank God everyday for blessing us with such a sweet and healthy little boy!