June. DRESS

On June 1st, we were on the way to Kate's 5th birthday. I noticed that Henry had a small red rash on his cheeks. We called the doctor, and took him into our pediatrician. He, at first, thought it was fifths disease, a normal childhood virus. But then, Henry got a fever, and he thought it was something else, but didn't know what. I took him to the emergency room, honestly, I thought we would be sent straight home. But, Henry's oxygen levels were low, and they admitted him to the hospital. He was diagnosed with pneumonia. We were sent home two nights later. We stopped giving him Dapsone, since it was a new drug, and we thought he may be allergic to it.

 

But the rash continued to grow. It went down his face, onto his arms chest, back and legs. It never affected his underwear zone.

 

 

A few days later, Henry got sicker, and the rash got worse. He wasn't eating, and didn't feel good. We had a lot of doctors trying to figure out what was wrong. Infectious disease, cardiology, oncology, gastroenterology, and internal medicine doctors all tried to figure out what was wrong. Finally, a dermatologist looked at him and said that the had DRESS (drug reaction eosinophilia with systemic symptoms). It's a very big word that meant that Henry was having a rare drug reaction to Dapsone. There way to treat the DRESS was high dose steroids.

Henry spent eight nights in the hospital. We fed him from with the tube up his nose, and gave him medicine through a central line that was placed in his leg.

When Henry started to feel better, we saw our sweet Henry again.

You two loved to play in the wagons.