Of Rashes and Lollipops

The fashion accessories Samantha is sporting on her shoulders in the photo above are none other than band aids.  And band aids from the doctor, no matter how cute they are, adorned with Tweety Bird and Daffy Duck, are still a source of tears as she recalls the reason for those band aids and how much those darned things hurt being ripped off your skin.  Thankfully, three of the four fell off on their own, and Daddy distracted her enough to pull the fourth off sans drama.

However, the reason for those band aids was a series of injections.  On Friday, Daddy took her for her 5-year check-up before school starts, and while 3 shots were supposed to be the norm, a 4th booster that had been unavailable at the previous year's appointment was added.  And they were all shots for the icky, rashy childhood illnesses, Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Chicken Pox.  Yum.  All things I managed to escape with a natural or acquired immunity growing up, but watched my mother suffer through at 30.  Samantha weathered the shots well with just a few tears, and went back to her summer camp class right afterwords with no adverse effects.

Until morning.  She woke up on Saturday with a nice, red, raised rash around her feet and ankles, hands and wrists, elbows, and knees, with a little pinprick rash all over her body.  Now even if you're a medical professional that I have called on Saturday morning to get advice about what's going on, don't tell me that it doesn't sound related to the vaccines.  Seriously?  Now that would be highly coincidental not to be.  Ridiculous.  Just because her reaction came immediately afterwards instead of days/weeks later, and was more localized to particular parts of her body instead of uniformly all-over, I should take her to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room (peds office was too fully-booked on Sat. to even have us come by to just take a look at the rash??) to see if it's something else?  I was never worried.  There was no swelling other than the raised rash, and she wasn't itching or in any apparent discomfort.  I let it go, and by Sunday the rash was pretty much gone.

I'm not one to ignore something that could be a serious concern, especially when it comes to Samantha, but really?  In this case why couldn't anyone just say, oh, it sounds like it's from the vaccine?  Not a coincidence, not contagious, not a problem.  Rant over.

So I got my healthy, rashy, Benadryl-sotted child dressed and did what any concerned mom would do - took her to her school's little fun-fair, where they had a moon bounce, music and games for the kids while they drummed up some new enrollments for fall.  Samantha loved the bounce, as always, but was otherwise less-than-social.  The meds, while they did absolutely nothing for her rash, did make her sleepy and a bit cranky.  We went back home and she slept for two hours before an afternoon playdate that this unconcerned mom didn't feel necessary to cancel.