Urticaria

I learned that hives “real” name is urticaria.  I couldn’t even say that on a good day!

Well, the hives returned today.  Around 10 a.m. Lauren called me FREAKING OUT.  My first thought was that one of the dogs got hit by a car.  But no.  The hives returned but this time Lauren was home alone.

I sorta calmed her down.  As calm as anyone can get a 16 year old who is watching her 12 year old mentally handicapped brother who is covered in hives and her parents are 30 minutes away in another town.

I had her put Matty in a cool bath.  She said that the areas of his skin that soaked in the water lost their hives.  So now we think that maybe the dogs might have brought something in and he is allergic to it.  When it happened yesterday Matty was on our floor where all 4 dogs were lolling around.  Today it happened after BeeJay and Brutus were wallowering in his bed. 

I have to say that being a mom is totally Laurens element.  She handles this stuff like a pro.  The only time she faltered was when those teen emotions crept up on her.  She got him a Claritin and had him take it while he was in the bath.  She called me and put me on speaker phone because Matty was fussing in the tub.  So I was able to calm him.  When he was done she patted him down with a towel instead of rubbing him.  She had the other two kids off running in different directions to help her.  She had Austin bathing all 4 dogs.  She had Rachel folding laundry so she could start washing Mattys bedding.  Then she had the kids all vaccumming their bedroom floors.  I was just like, “Wow.”  Though I’m sure when I get home I’ll get to hear about how mean Lauren is .

After I got off the phone with Lauren the first time I called Kevin to let him know what was up.  He was ahead on his delivery routes so he stopped by Walgreens.  He was at a customers house when I had called and the customer suggested getting some Benadryl spray.  Matty might handle that better than someone rubbing him.  So Kevin went and got a bunch of stuff from Walgreens to help Matty’s hives and took it to Lauren.  I think she was grateful for stuff that was more Matty friendly. 

When I talked to her earlier this afternoon she insisted I stay at work because she “had it under control.”  By then most of the hives had gone down and he was getting sleepy.  She was going to lay him down for a little siesta.  I’m sure the Benadryl liquid that he took knocked him out. 

I swear I have lots of wedding stuff coming … this is just like a stressful commercial break .

Hives

I spent the day in bed yesterday.  Actually, I was in bed from the moment we got back from the big big city until this morning.

Well, Matty was sitting on the floor by my bed.  He was hiding behind his table.  I figured he had an accident in his pants and was hiding.  Kevin, being the amazing dad that he is, got Matty off to the potty.  When Kevin went to get him back off of it he noticed that Matty had broken out in hives.

He brought him to me so I could see.  They were awful!!  I had never seen hives on him before.  He jumped into a cool shower with him.  After the shower I was able to douse him in some calamine lotion.  We also gave him a Benadryl.  By his bedtime the calimined spots were gone but a few more had appeared.  I treated those and sent him to bed.  When he woke up this morning he was good.

We have no idea what did it to him.  He was eating a hot & spicy chicken sandwich with Cheez-its and Gatorade.  I told Kevin that maybe the hot and spicy stuff might have gotten to him since he has had the other food items in the past.  But at the same time maybe it was the red dye that was in the food.  We may never know but we will definitely keep our eyes open in the future