HIVES!

My poor little man. It's been quite a month health-wise for Cash. After a terrible stomach bug finally seemed to be on its way out last week, we woke up on Friday morning to a raging case of hives. It started with a little swollen hand and a couple of bumps on his stomach. At the time, it looked like he had just been bitten by something so off to daycare he went but we asked them to keep an eye on him. Well, an hour later, I got a call that his entire body was covered in welts. So we went to urgent care and were told that this was just the "last legs" of his stomach virus and it could go on and off for a week so just give him some Children's Benedryl and he will be fine.

That night, his whole face, eyes, everything became swollen. Ross and I cancelled our plans to go out with friends and tried to put Cash to bed. By 3am, he was just one big welt. Since we were supposed to be leaving that morning for Winston-Salem for my dad's birthday, we decided our best course of action was to go to the ER and see if there was anything stronger we could give him.

After a 3 hour visit to the ER, we left with a strong steroid to give him and the assurance that this was in fact NOT the "last legs" of a virus but a definite allergic reaction to something. We just have no idea what. The only new thing Cash had tried food-wise in the recent days was potatoes which don't seem like a highly allergic food to me. So we hoped that the steroid and Benedryl combo would give him some relief and the hives would abate as whatever he was allergic to leaves his system.

Well it's now Tuesday, I'm sitting in the Hilton in Daytona Beach, FL (I had to leave on a short work trip on Sunday night) and as of last night, still raging hives. The daycare seems to think that the hives seemed to "come out" after he ate his bottle so we are switching him to soy formula for the time-being. Would a milk allergy all of a sudden present itself after 3 months drinking formula in some fashion? I have no idea but we are grasping at straws until Cash's appointment with the allergist on February 15th. Hopefully we can get these hives away soon!