Let's Add a Drug Allergy to the List

Yesterday afternoon I received an email from Olivia’s teacher. Olivia had been observed as having a rash all over her body.

The email came in at 2:30. I replied with a thank you and the assurance that we’d check Olivia out and probably take her to the doctor to get checked out.

I called Tom to give him a heads up and for him to read the pamphlet of the antibiotic Olivia had finished on Saturday.

And then I waited for Tom to call me back.

He finally called at 3:20 to let me know he needed to feed O her lunch but that he definitely thought she needed to be seen by a medical professional and he’d have her in town by 4:30.

I tried calling our family doctor. After two calls, I got the receptionist. After I described O’s rash and the events that preceded it, she said I should talk to a nurse.

She transferred me.

I went directly to voice mail.

I hung up and called Tom to tell him to meet me at Urgent Care. I mean, that was where Olivia got her pneumonia diagnosis anyway, so I could actually say we were just continuing her care with the doctor that currently knew her best.

And we were in luck, the doctor we saw a month ago for the ear infection and again last week for the pneumonia was the one who was on duty this time.

We like this doctor. She friendly, she’s knowledgeable, she doesn’t require unnecessary tests. She took one look at Olivia’s rash and declared Olivia to be allergic to sulfa based antibiotics.

She asked Olivia if the rash itched. Olivia shook her head that it didn’t.

The doctor laughed and said, “We’re making progress, she’s at least smiling at me and responding to my questions, even if she’s still not actually talking to me.”

She decided that since O’s rash didn’t itch, she wouldn’t need a steroid. She said she didn’t want to introduce any more chemicals into O’s 52 pound body if we could avoid it. She suggested benedryl at night and lotion if Olivia wanted it.

Then we went home.

This morning, the rash was a little worse but still didn’t seem to be itchy. Olivia took one look at her face in the mirror and asked if she looked like a teenager. It took us a minute to realize she thought she looked like she had acne. Ha. She really does take it all in. We’re just so, so lucky that she can get her thoughts out to us and communicate as well as she does.

The rash should go away in the next couple of days. And from now on, when asked if she has any allergies, the answer is yes, she’s allergic to sulfas. And now we know.