A few days before Traeton turned eight years old I took he and Addison into the doctor's office for their well-child visits. Everything was routine. Nothing was a surprise. Praise the Lord they are healthy.
Trae and Add each got a shot or two to keep them caught up on their immunizations. No biggie. The next day one of Addison's shot locations became hot and hard. No big deal, we've seen this before. I was not concerned.
The next morning, however, her whole bicep was swollen to the point of splitting the skin. There were also blisters all over the area. I called the doctor's office, a little more concerned. They said 'circle it'. If it gets bigger then we want to see her.
That night Todd, who was on call at the hospital, had me do a drive-by, front-door exam on her. He was very concerned. He said that if the swelling went down into her elbow she'd have to been seen in the ER. Whew, all night I woke every few hours to check her out. We made it through the night.
The next morning we visited the doctor's office. They were not very concerned. They felt it was probably an allergic reaction to the immunization. We covered it up and headed to Estes Park for a camping weekend. By time we got to Estes her whole arm was swollen to the point it was stiff-straight. Weird!
We enjoyed the beautiful mountains, great fellowship with our church group and Todd's 34th birthday. Addison was a trooper! Never once did she complain. She would get frustrated because her balance was off and it was really difficult to climb around with only one working arm.
So the weekend passed and the swelling began to subside. She was good to go, back to normal within a few days.
Todd's next call night, a few days later, her ankle began to get hot and hard. Her ankle and foot swelled so quickly. She was completely unable to walk.
We returned to the doctor the next morning. They had no idea where this was coming from. We had no idea what was going on. The only thing we could think of was it was a major reaction to a bug bite from Estes Park. Bizarre but possible I guess.
Long story short, they sent us to Children's Hospital with a possibility of surgery to release the pressure from the swelling to regain circulation to her foot. We arrived at Children's. It is a beautiful facility. We bounced around all day long from one department to another. No one knew what was happening. No one could give us a diagnosis. We were over-done! Finally at the very, very end of the day we were seen by a team of six dermatologists. Within seconds they identified it as a poison ivy reaction!!!!! What!?!?!?!
They said she got it in Estes Park. Then how do you explain the exact same reaction on her arm the week before Estes Park?
So with that she started some heavy duty steroids and it all disappeared.
Still mysterious. Todd doesn't agree with the poison ivy diagnosis. I just don't know what to believe. I am grateful it is over and so is she!
This is a picture of us sitting in a room at Children's Hospital. Did I mention she was a trooper? She was amazing! I only hope and pray that when I face some mysterious ailment that I can weather it as well as she did.
