Our Little Medical Mystery
When we were at the hospital on Saturday, yet another bacterial culture was taken from our boy. That and a CBC. The CBC results were fast: Totally normal with WBC counts in range. That was great news for everyone since it meant there wasn't a raging infection. However for the bacterial culture, we had to wait 40 hours.
It came back yesterday. Nothing. No bacteria. Which is good news/bad news, eh? Because, hurrah!, no bacteria = no MRSA. But if it ain't bacteria, what the hell is it? Partner isn't sure she trusts the culture. She doesn't think the resident got any liquid on his swab, but it's the second bacterial culture. I'm torn: I don't want it to be MRSA, but I'd also like to have an answer.
It's not viral-- the WBC count would probably be up in that case, and they also did a PCR test for viruses, and that also was negative.
I talked to our pediatrician this morning and she said to me, "This is the weirdest case I've ever seen in fourteen years of practice." Great, I told her, I'm glad it's my kid.
If it's not bacterial, what might it be? Our doc didn't know, but is really interested in what the pediatric dermatologist will say. She didn't know if it might some auto-immune thing going on?
So, if you took Bradley birth classes, do you remember the class where you had to rank things about a birth? Less desirable to more desirable? I kinda feel like I'm doing that with the rash-- MRSA ranks pretty high on the less desirable list, but an auto-immune disorder ranks higher than MRSA.
My current theory is this: The head rash and the body rash are unrelated. The body rash is from the sunscreen, which would explain why the antibiotics aren't clearing it up, yet have cleared the initial head rash. The head rash was impetigo and the first culture from it wasn't a good one, which is why the bacterial culture is negative. If there are no more outbreaks, I'm running with this theory. Except for the fact that there appear to be some small dots on his ears, and I'm quite sure I never put sunscreen on his ears.
Oh well. I'm trying.
It came back yesterday. Nothing. No bacteria. Which is good news/bad news, eh? Because, hurrah!, no bacteria = no MRSA. But if it ain't bacteria, what the hell is it? Partner isn't sure she trusts the culture. She doesn't think the resident got any liquid on his swab, but it's the second bacterial culture. I'm torn: I don't want it to be MRSA, but I'd also like to have an answer.
It's not viral-- the WBC count would probably be up in that case, and they also did a PCR test for viruses, and that also was negative.
I talked to our pediatrician this morning and she said to me, "This is the weirdest case I've ever seen in fourteen years of practice." Great, I told her, I'm glad it's my kid.
If it's not bacterial, what might it be? Our doc didn't know, but is really interested in what the pediatric dermatologist will say. She didn't know if it might some auto-immune thing going on?
So, if you took Bradley birth classes, do you remember the class where you had to rank things about a birth? Less desirable to more desirable? I kinda feel like I'm doing that with the rash-- MRSA ranks pretty high on the less desirable list, but an auto-immune disorder ranks higher than MRSA.
My current theory is this: The head rash and the body rash are unrelated. The body rash is from the sunscreen, which would explain why the antibiotics aren't clearing it up, yet have cleared the initial head rash. The head rash was impetigo and the first culture from it wasn't a good one, which is why the bacterial culture is negative. If there are no more outbreaks, I'm running with this theory. Except for the fact that there appear to be some small dots on his ears, and I'm quite sure I never put sunscreen on his ears.
Oh well. I'm trying.
Labels: The Rash from Hell
posted by Katie at 2:07 PM
1 Comments:
On the one hand, I am so happy that the cultures were negative. On the other hand, I know exactly how it feels to not have any answers to a medical mystery. I hope the dermatologist can shed some light on the issue and that it has a simple answer with a simple treatment and no possibility of recurrence!
Thinking of you...
And seriously, that picture of him on the plane is so cute!
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