A Bumpy Start

Of course, it always happens on a Saturday when all the clinics are closed.

Abby, 48+ hours after surgery on her right eye, wakes up covered with fiery red bumps stretching from her right jaw to her left temple. Her left cheek was fine, and her chin and nose. But the entire area surrounding her surgery eye was hive-alicious.

Eeep. How many horrible scenarios are running thru my mind if that eye should get infected! She says it is really itchy.

I call the on-call doc and tell him what is going on. He says just keep an eye on it and give hydrocortisone.

So I'm trying to run down what it could be in my head. It seems like the entire area that may have been covered by the surgical drape? Isn't that just sort of a papery thing? Would it be some reaction to latex? Did they rub something on her face before surgery to disinfect, like iodine? But could a disinfecting agent cause hives?

Sean proceeds to tell me that Abby hugged Nana and it could have been Nana's poison ivy.

Well, $#@%.

So I read my "Take Care of Your Child" books and it mentions this Tecnu cleanser as both a prevention AND a post-rash remedy for poison ivy. Must be good stuff because both our local Walgreens were sold out. Found some at CVS. Washed Abby's face with it delicately so it won't get in her eye. Almost immediately, she says the itching is gone. She renames it "supercream". We repeated as needed, maybe 3 times a day for a couple of days. Now her bumps are still there, but the fire is gone and she says it doesn't itch anymore.

And by all sorts of luck and the grace of God, today at the check up, doc seems amazed how fast her eye has healed up and there are no signs of inflammation! Hurray!

She is doing the eye chart, and for the life of me, I thought she was blind as a bat. It seemed to me that she only got 3 right off of the alphabet and the picture chart combined. But, they said she is seeing 20/50 already in that eye. OK, if you say so. So here's hoping it keeps getting better. Or at least they will stop giving me that look that says, "she's five and doesn't know her letters???"