What the Heck Was THAT?

Last Friday morning, The Papa woke me at 6:45 to tell me that The Girl had a weird rash.  When I hear the word "rash", I think of little red bumps.  This is what I found:

They looked more like welts.

She didn't seem bothered by it, and she didn't have any other symptoms so we decided to just watch it.  Since The Boy was still sleeping, we decided to read some books.  While we were reading, she told me that her throat was hurting.  Within seconds, some stuff came out of her mouth, and I knew she'd had yogurt as a morning snack.  I say, "some stuff came out of her mouth" because I don't know if it's called regurgitation or vomit.  Maybe some of my medical friends can help me out with that.  Anyway, that was a little weird and a lot disgusting, but she seemed to not be bothered.  A little later she was ready for breakfast, and she continued to be her "normal" self.  In fact, she decided to get married that day.  "Of course!" I thought.  "Hives.  Perfectly normal for a girl who's about to get married."

She asked me to send The Papa a picture and ask if he would send a gift.  We've been using the silver we got for our wedding, and she is absolutely pleased to know that gifts for weddings are appropriate.

Around noon, I noticed she felt "a little warm."  I decided to let her watch some DVDs we had borrowed from the library to keep her calm so she could rest.  By that point, the rash had started doing its thing.  Several small mosquito-bite-looking-bumps would appear then swell into one big Pangea-looking-thing.  It started itching.  She was still pretty unphased by it all, but by the time 4:00 rolled around, things were going downhill.  Four o'clock is the time The Papa is scheduled to get off work as well as the time both children start getting hungry for dinner and sleepy.  Not a good combination.

I "whipped up" (as The Papa would say) a batch of coconut oil with lavender and tea tree essential oils.  We spent a lot of time rubbing her with that which seemed to calm her down and relieve the itching.  I was out of my favorite immune-boosting go-to so I had made a batch of elderberry syrup.  We continued that along with some other supplements.  Since The Papa was home (and found me deserving of a fashionable adult beverage, by the way), I was able to spend some time trying to determine which homeopathic remedies might be helpful.

By Friday evening, the rash covered her entire body.  It migrated, if you will.

Nights were tough.  The Girl was tired.  The Mama was tired.  The Papa was tired.  The Girl got very itchy at night and only slept a couple of hours straight when she was able to sleep.  At three o'clock Saturday morning, she was thrilled with the idea of a cornstarch bath.  I filled the tub full of water (a treat since The Boy wasn't there), and she splashed around like a flounder.  It was so good to see her smiling and laughing.  It was a little bit of a different story when she had to get out, but a cornstarch dusting was a good idea.

I have to tell you that when The Papa told me there was a rash, I thought, "Of course it's Friday."  So this "watch and see" plan has to last 'til Monday which is a tad more uncomfortable than, say, tomorrow.  On top of that, the chiroquacker was on vacation so I had no one to reassure me that we could wait 'til Monday.  I should say, however, that the urgent care is another of the tools in our arsenal.  We're fortunate that there are two urgent care centers within two miles of our house so if the going gets too tough, we can get going.  Fortunately, all the bumps were gone by Sunday evening, and except for an exhausted family, we were none the worse for wear.

Well, most of us were exhausted.  Some of us thrive on adrenaline, apparently.

I have several thoughts about treating "things" naturally.  When you don't know what you're fighting, it's hard to know which weapon to use.  The great thing about doing things naturally, though, is that you have so many weapons to use.  As you can tell, we'd already pulled several weapons from the arsenal:  herbs, homeopathics, supplements, essential oils, and whatever you call coconut oil.  And time.

I couldn't really think of a good reason to go to the doctor.  All I knew is that I had a child with a rash, a 12-hour fever, and a one-time vomit.  I had a sweet friend and a good neighbor trying to help figure out what the heck it was, and, of course, none of her symptoms perfectly fit anything we could find.  I decided to quit Googling when I couldn't determine if it was an allergic reaction, meningitis, or (the) fifth disease.

Here we are on Tuesday evening still not knowing what the heck was that.  I shouldn't admit this, but in one way, I wish it was me who had gotten it, and in another way, I'm glad it wasn't.  I'm really, really glad it wasn't The Papa though.  ;)