The Spotted Monster

Today I took Emmett to the dermatologist to get his stitches out. Stitches, you say, hmmm.. Tara hasn't posted anything about this. They were our first kid ones ever and here's the story.

Since last February Emmett has had a recurring problem with breaking out in red spots all over his body. See the post & pictures about the first time Emmett broke out. (The Elephant Baby) He has never been so bad as this first time, but it is definitely a recurring problem and we've been to the pediatrician more times than I wanted to spend a $15 co-pay. The good thing about all this is that Emmett has never been bothered by the spots. He acts as if they aren't there and they don't seem to itch or hurt him at all. Which is why we haven't been more agressive about treating them or finding out the cause. He's been on & off antihistamines, which seem to help and as a side effect make him drowsy - which could be the cause of his sleeping 4-5 hours per day & 12 hours at night - but who's complaining? We tried a course of daily Allegra and when he was broken out continually for 2 weeks with that we took him to a dermatologist.

This was quite the drama. I figured it would just be a consultation so I took Alden too. He was very good during the whole thing. Emmett did okay with like 3 doctors & nurses looking him over VERY closely for like 20 minutes solid. After all, Mom was still holding him. It was when they told me they needed a couple biopsies that things got dicey. 2 more nurses came in to help hold Emmett down. This is the point that Alden announces he needs to go potty. So they all have to wait for us while I take both boys to the bathroom. They wasn't anywhere else for Alden to go so I tried to set him up with Aaron's PDA and a movie facing the corner. At which point the battery dies, I replace it and get the fatal error message and completely wipe out everything on Aaron's PDA. Did I mention he got a new iPod - so he was only minimally angry. So Alden watches the whole thing - which involves 3 of us holding Emmett down and the PA carving out 2 spots on Emmett's tummy. They numbed him first, of course, and the spots weren't huge - but a bit deep and certainly bled a ton all over. Emmett was hysterical the whole time, and Alden was crying too. They put 1 stitch through the middle of one wound but the other wouldn't stop bleeding. So everyone left and I was supposed to hold a gauze pad over it and keep pressure on it for 10 min. That's when Alden announces he has to go potty again. And let me tell you - a bit difficult to hold an almost naked, very upset, baby with a bleeding wound and take a 3 year old to the bathroom. But did I mention I'm super-mom? Eventually Emmett got all stitched up and they tell us to come back in 10 days to get the stitches out and hear the lab results.

I forgot to say what they thought the problem was. Apparently all the spots are hives. And they were mystified as to why they don't itch. But they said he is not allergic to anything external like food or soap, which is what the pediatrician told me too. One guess was that he has a low-grade infection - not enough to make him sick, but that he is allergic to and breaks out in the hives. Their other guess was that he has a disease called mastocytosis - which somehow means that he has extra mast cells floating around that tell his body to break out in hives, even without a trigger. It's a pretty rare childhood disease - but not exactly life threatening or anything, and kids grow out of it. Either of these 2 issues they treat with antihistamines, which is what he's been on already. To shorten this very long story - the labs showed no extra mast cells so the dermatologist recommends giving him antihistamines everyday, having the pediatrician do every test for signs of infection, and coming back in 6 weeks. Did I mention he's been pretty much clear-skinned since the dermatologist appt. with only 3 doses of meds in 2 weeks? So after talking to the pediatrician - we've decided to do... NOTHING. Emmett is better - I can give him meds if he breaks out - he's not uncomfortable when he is broken out - and I am sick and tired of paying $15 co-pays! We're not going to do blood work, chest x-rays, or other invasive tests looking for some phantom infection that may or may not be there but doesn't appear to be hurting him. My pediatrician did recommend me to the Phoenix Children's Hospital where they have a pediatric dermatology group - and said it doesn't hurt to make the appointment. It will take months to get in and if he seems good until then I can cancel.

What a nightmare! It's exhausting just writing about it and I bet not many of you made it through the whole story or even care that much. Emmett sure doesn't. But hey, this is supposed to be our family journal, to save for the boys and all posterity, so I figured I would chronicle this craziness. Too bad I don't have any fun pictures to add.