Scarlet Fever? Seriously?

So...my kid has/had Scarlet Fever.  What?  How does this happen?  Is it the 1800s again?  Am I on the Oregon Trail?  Am I in the movie Little Women?

Yes, these are all questions that ran through my mind when the doctor at Pediatrics After Hours took one look at the rash on Mia's body and the positive Strep A throat culture and said...This little girl has Scarlet Fever.

I immediately felt horrible.  But let's back up...start from the beginning.

Two weeks ago, Mia had a runny nose.  Not bad...just runny and then she started pulling on her ears.  So, I schlepped her to Dr. Sherrod (her pediatrician) to make sure we didn't have an ear infection.  He took one look at her ears, listened to her lunch and looked in her throat and said...Allergies, with a beginning infection in her nose.  So, we go amoxicillan (which isn't pink anymore, by the way) and strict orders to eat yogurt every day to prevent stomach discomfort.

So, after a few days of antibiotics, the runny nose stopped.  But then the fever started.  It was never horrible, got to about 101.7 at it's highest.  But Mia just didn't look right.  She wanted to lay on the floor with her paci (yes, she still has a paci and I don't care in the slightest right now) and blankie and lay on the floor and watch "Poppins" (Mary Poppins).  We treated the fever with the motrin/tylenol combo and it kept it down.

So, the fever subsided after a few days...and then the rash started.  It started as a few spots on her forehead, then moved it's way down her neck.  I thought she may have been allergic to something.  I made banana walnut french toast that night for dinner that night... See? (It was delicious by the way)

Silly me, I thought Mia might have had a reaction to the walnuts, since she'd never had them before.  Or maybe it was a reaction to the amoxicillan?  She ate the walnuts...but didn't really like the french toast.

So, we made an after hours call to the doctor's nurse and asked if we could give her benadryl.  After two trips to the store, JC came home with some benadryl liquid and cream.  We tried the liquid benadryl and crossed our fingers.

So, Mia went to bed and woke up with a slightly less red rash.  It spread to her torso and back, but it was never really red.  We did another dose of bendryl and kept an eye on her.  She didn't act sick, was sleeping, was eating (as much as a toddler does these days) and just might have seemed a little off.  She was about 85% of her normal self.  I chalked it up to recovering from her fever and nose infection.

That night, I gave her a bath and noticed that the rash got worse and bumpier in the water. Almost like sand paper on her skin.  Weird.  But, I put her to bed (this was Friday night) with another dose of benadryl.  When she woke up the next morning (Saturday), she had these big, red, bug-bite looking things on the back of her leg.  She had three of them.  And silly me...I thought...my goodness, did a bug bite her?  Was there a spider in her bed?  Mind you...she was showing no signs of being sick except for this weird "allergic" rash.   So, I put some hydrocortisone cream on the bites in case they itched.  The day progressed and when I changed her diaper...it had spread to about 12 splotches and there were some on her arms too.

So, I packed her up and took her to Pediatrics After Hours up the street.  On the way there, a truck hit the side of my car (another story), but we got there okay and checked in.  I was stewing the whole time while I was there because I thought "Geez, here we are around all of these sick kids...one has a goopy eye, the other sounds like her lungs are gonna fall out of her chest and we're here for a stupid allergic rash.  There is no way Mia is getting out her with out getting sick.  We waited an HOUR AND A HALF and I was so mad about it.  Because MY KID wasn't sick and because we had to wait so long, she was going to.   Boy...was I wrong...

When we finally got to the back, Mia was irritable...mostly because I wouldn't let her near the other kids and you can only do so much with a toddler for an hour and half before they lose it.  She kept saying..."Bye Bye" and "All Done" and "Go" when we got into the doctor's room.  So, the nurse came in, got the gist of our "story" and did a strep test, just in case.  Mia was happy as a clam.  This is her after the small episode of crying with the throat swab. You can kind of see the rash on her face...

Then the doctor came in, said she was positive for strep, took a look at the rash on her torso and back and said...I think it's Scarlet Fever.  And then I freaked.  She took one look at her mouth and said..."Oh yeah, her throat is RED and it's got to be hurting her."  And I felt like the worst parent ever.  She showed ZERO signs of feeling bad, except for last week.  And it wasn't even that bad.  She just wanted me to hold her more and always woke up crying (which is not normal for Mia).  She usually wakes up talking to her stuffed purple hippo she sleeps with.

So, we I high-tailed it back to the drugstore for some Culturelle (yogurt ain't cutting it for these antibiotics), Augmentin and kids' advil.  As of this morning, the rash is completely gone and I would say she is back to 100% already.  Her throat may hurt like hell, but we are none the wiser.  She shows no signs at all.  She is running, yelling, singing "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "ABCs" (well, her version) at the top of her lungs and is eating.  I give her popsicles and pudding in large doses just in case.  Boy, I'll be glad when she can say, "Mommy, mom throat hurts."  This girl must have a high tolerance for pain!

We are out of the contagious stage and the doctor assures me that Scarlet Fever is just strep throat with a rash and isn't at all what it used to be before antibiotics.  But holy, crap.  Scarlet Fever?  Seriously?