Scarlet Fever

A few weeks ago Easton finished a 10-day antibiotic for an ear infection on Friday night.  Late Saturday night he  spiked a temp.  We gave him some Tylenol and he went back to sleep.  We never saw the fever again.  Sunday night when we got him out of the tub, we noticed he had a few spots on his back.  We didn't think much of it since a variety of things can cause skin irritation, so we just decided we'd keep an eye on it.  Monday morning we looked at the spots again and they looked about the same.  Monday night Mike sent me a text while I was at negotiations and told me he thought the spots had gotten worse.  When I got home at 11:30 pm, Easton woke up and there was a full-blown rash covering his entire body.  About 12:15 am the rash began to itch, and Easton didn't sleep well after that.  Other than the itching that the rash caused, Easton acted completely normal (He looked terrible with the rash everywhere though)!  Tuesday morning I took him to the doctor.  The nurse and doctor both said it was a very impressive rash (not really what you want to hear from a Doctor or nurse!).  Turns out he had scarlet fever (strep with a rash), which he caught while he was on antibiotics (the doctor said she didn't know how he caught it while on medicine.)  They say a person can only get scarlet fever once in their life - I certainly hope that's true!

 

You can't see it as well in the first two pictures, but the rash looked like his leg does in the last picture, but it covered his entire body (including the palms of his hands and bottoms of his feet).  It's heartbreaking to watch your little one suffer with any illness, and this was no exception!

 

 

"I still have in my memory, almost agonizing impressions of a serious illness which I had when I was about eight years old.  Those about me called it scarlet fever, and its very name seemed to have a diabolical quality." ~Pierre Loti