OMG, The Hives

i am half convinced that max's hives will never, ever go away. the ones from thursday are FINALLY completely gone. yesterday they had faded, but they were still visible. today they were gone. but there are new hives now, and they are EVERYWHERE. and i do mean everywhere - chest/belly, back, arms, legs, hands, feet, bottom, neck, face. benadryl seems to help the itching some, but it does nothing to make the welts go away. max gets one more dose of the oral steroid, and then we'll have to rely on benadryl. and i swear, if he still has all these crazy spots monday, he's going back to the doctor. because i find it hard to believe that this is normal.

it should not take 48 hours for individual welts to disappear. and max's face, hands, and feet are incredibly swollen (i called the doc about that yesterday and was told this was normal). the poor baby is completely miserable, and who could blame him? his entire body itches ALL THE TIME. i have found over the course of today that the red fades when max is sleeping and then worsens when he's up and active (which is all the time when he's awake). today he has welts all over his face, and his eyes look really puffy.
















the corticosteroid (orapred, generic version is prednisilone) is supposed to help "stubborn hives," which is what you'd call max's variety for sure. he's been on it for 2 1/2 days (we only got a 3 day supply), and he is still getting welts all over his body. there is a small bit of improvement, however. the welts that formed today aren't nearly as large as those he was getting thursday and friday, and they do fade some when max is asleep (but they return full force once he's up and moving). but now they are all over his hands, feet, and face, areas that were largely unaffected on thursday.

we are not sleeping well, because max wakes up itchy and miserable. last night, he woke up just before 3 a.m. and did not go back to sleep until after 4:00. he woke up again at 6:05. on a saturday. geez. poor kid.

i decided to give the situation until monday morning to resolve itself, then we're going back to the doctor. he will complete his round of steroids tomorrow, and i shudder to think what will happen when he's off them. hopefully, the welts will continue to diminish in size and redness. and then disappear for good.

given the issues we've been having getting rid of the hives, i really don't want to turn around and give max 1/2 a dose of amoxicillin in a few days to see if he's allergic to it. because i DO NOT want to have to deal with this again. and more importantly, i don't want max to be this miserable again because of something i knowingly did to him. on the other hand, i really want to find out what he's allergic to so we can avoid it like the plague.