This morning, Owen woke up looking like this:
He had developed the hives the day before, and I had sent him to bed with some Benadryl, which seemed to help for a while. However, there was clearly still a problem in the morning. I decided it was time to call a doctor, hoping that they could tell me what he might be allergic to that would be causing these crazy hives and that they would give me something to treat them. At the beginning of this adventure, PwC provided us with a phone number for a service that will make you an appointment with an English speaking doctor. It took me 45 minutes to figure out how to dial the number (long story), but once I did things moved along fairly quickly and by noon we were sitting in the doctor's office. She was a nice woman who spoke English very well. She determined that Owen needed to see the dermatologist down the hall and got us in to see her very quickly. When I asked the new doctor if she spoke English she said "only a little", which turned out to be very true. The language barrier was enough that I couldn't really ask her many questions, but she did manage to relay that she thought Owen had something called Urticaria and gave us a prescription. What a relief to have a diagnosis! When I tried to ask her why he got this condition she couldn't really give me a good answer but seemed not to think it was from an allergic reaction. No problem, I thought. I will go home and look the word Urticaria up on the computer and we will know the cause of this problem and how to prevent it in the future.
(Owen took this picture of me in the Doctor's office. Enough said!)
When we got home, I quickly fired up the computer, punched the word Urticaria into Google and learned that it means...wait for it...wait for it...hives. And guess what? Hives are most likely caused by an allergy and are best treated with an antihistamine, like Benadryl. Well, I knew all of that before I took him to the doctor!! I suppose it was good that we went though. I think the prescription she gave him is for stronger antihistamines than Benadryl, so hopefully they will work better and faster. She also said that he should stay away from sweets, juice, fast food, chips and gum. For the life of me I can't figure out how that will help, but it is worth a try. As a back up plan, I am calling our family doctor on Monday to set up an appointment for allergy testing when we get back. You know, just in case these might be those regular old hives that are caused by an allergic reaction!
PS The first doctor ruled out bed bugs as the cause, which was a relief!
Oh Dear Carla, I wish you could have texted me! I couldn't help but giggle when I saw the "urticaria" *diagnosis* hee hee. I'm curious what the doctor did prescribe, and even more curious why a regular doctor thought a dermatologist was necessary for hives!? Who knows? It may be he just got a non-sedating antihistamine for the days. I wouldn't worry too much about the allergy thing, as my understanding is that most cases of urticaria are NOT due to allergy. It could be as simple as a viral infection, which I have seen in Noah when he had hives in the strangest places (I did note Owen's were mostly on his joints). Sorry you guys have been so sick...it's probably the lack of fresh air in condo living!
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