Sept. 23: Sylvia is taking a nap. She is one very itchy, splotchy, rashy girl.
I took her in to the doctor last night, and the guy we saw said that they don’t differentiate between an allergic and a non-allergic rash reaction to penicillin. His opinion was that there are plenty of good alternatives to penicillin and it’s not worth the resources to do a skin allergy test. I’m not sure if I agree, but it might not matter, because late last night, Sylvia’s rash was really itchy. It was driving her nuts. And according to what I’ve read, that’s a sign of a true penicillin allergy.
She’s still running a low fever, and the doctor last night said that her left eardrum was still red and swollen, and he said that the right ear was also infected! Poor sweet girl! Ear infections and a body-wide rash.
The doctor switched her to an erythromycin-based antibiotic and told me to give her oatmeal baths, cold compresses, and Benadryl if she got itchy. A few hours after our doctor’s visit, she did indeed get hugely frantic and itchy, and I rushed over to Walgreens to get some Benadryl for her. I can’t believe that I’m giving my small, sweet baby so many drugs, but I’m glad they’re available for her.
Here’s for hoping that the rash goes away in the next few days and her ear infection clears up! I posted some pictures of her rashy progression in the gallery (I know, I’m odd).
I found an interesting article on drug-induced skin rashes on Medscape.