A Big Scare

Saturday my boyfriend noticed that my daughter had some marks on her ankles that looked like a bunch of flea bites or bug bites of some sort. I hadn't noticed them but I hadn't had her more than a day at that point. I checked them out and they looked weird; not like flea bites at all but more like some kind of rash or chicken pox or something. She seemed fine otherwise but I thought it best and called the pediatrician right off. I brought her in after dropping off Alex at my Dad's. The nurse didn't know what they were so the doctor came in. She looked at them a couple of times and said they were something called "purpura" and could be something called HSP or Henoch Schonlein Purpura which is a harmless but abnormal immune system reaction that usually follows a respiratory illness. She also discovered a perforated ear drum from a middle ear infection after I pointed out the crustiness around her left ear. My poor baby :( Then the doctor said something I didn't expect: She said "I want you to take her to the Emergency Room and have them do blood work. I'll call it in myself." She explained that these spots can also be present during a bad bacterial infection called Meningococcemia.


Meningococcemia is very infectious, can be 90% fatal if combined with another disorder, and looks a lot like HSP. So off to the ER we went. I had her father come to help her feel a little more secure and we waited about an hour for the blood work to be drawn (fast for the triage ER) during which 6 people distracted her while I cried my eyes out in the corner! She didn't even cry once when they took her blood although when she looked over at what they were doing her lower lip puffed out and she looked scared for a minute but then they distracted her again and she was fine. Her father stayed for about 2.5 hours and then I told him to go ahead back to work. The doctor came in after another hour or so and said that her bloodwork looked fine, and that it was most likely HSP. We were there another hour though because suddenly her ankle became bruised looking and swelled up very noticably and she was unable to walk! We were there a total of 5 hours. When they released us Alicia was dead asleep from exhaustion and they had to remove her IV which she didn't even crack an eyelid for. She absolutely HATED having that IV and was fighting it earlier in the day. I brought her out to my car, put her in the car seat, brought her to my parents house, and laid her down on my Mom's bed and she slept another hour!! Poor thing.


She is much better now, and within a good night's sleep she was able to walk and even have a dance party with Jamie! Her spots on her legs are much better too and her ankle just has the yellowish color that a bruise gets as it fades. Hopefully this wasn't a precursor to something wrong with her immune system that will show itself down the road. Not much seems to be known about HSP's causes or any way to treat it or long term results from having it. She could never get it again or she could get it everytime she gets a particular viral or bacterial cold.