Scarletina

Well we didn’t make it out of town yesterday. Nora has had a rash for about 8 weeks now that’s come and gone and had originally been diagnosed as eczema and so we had been treating it as such (and then later mis-diagnosed again as yeast). But on Sunday night it flared up very bad and it was obviously very uncomfortable to her so we took her to the doc yesterday and even though the culture results haven’t come back yet she has been diagnosed with Scarletina. Scarletina is a strep bacterial skin infection, a derivative from the word Scarlet Fever. Yes, yikes, sounds very scary but Nora only has the infection on her skin, no strep throat, fever or any other symptoms thankfully. The bacteria is one of those common bugs that floats around in the environment that most of us come in contact with but the immune system usually fights it off unless the immune system is compromised or you’re a little baby with an immune system that is still developing. Nora’s poor skin is a wreck, very red, dry, peeling, bumpy. If you Google Scarletina her rash fits the description to a T. She was prescribed Amoxicillin and the rash responded right away after only the first dose. Even though she is now on the mend, strapping her in a car seat for 3 days with a very uncomfortable rash covering her torso, down her legs and up to her face as well as taking her up north with her immune system already fighting is not what we need to do. So we are rescheduling with Boston and thankfully we weren’t taking her up there for a procedure or Omegaven. Now at least we know what it takes to get Nora’s supplies ready for a long road trip (a lot) and we’ll be better organized when the time comes to go again.

Here are pictures of Nora’s ouchy skin. It is especially worse under her port dressing where the skin never gets to breathe. (Nora’s diaper is brownish color because it is a non-chlorine diaper, it’s not dirty) 🙂

Nora’s doctor thinks that the bacteria has been harboring around her g-tube button where the skin stays moist and warm. Now that I think back on how the rash has come and gone it makes total sense. Every time it would clear up, the g-tube area would always be the last to get better. I always contributed it to us keeping gauze around the button to absorb tummy leakage therefore also absorbing the ointments but seems like that wasn’t the case after all.

We hated to cancel our appointment in Boston and for sweet Nora to have this going on but at least it flared up the night before we were supposed to leave instead of while were were on the road. The thought of having to take her to a strange doctor between here and there would have been terrible. Things always happen for a reason.