Spend the Night Party!

Last weekend I got to have a spend the night party with my buddy, Drew! We had such a wonderful time playing and laughing! I'm so glad that Drew is big enough to play with me now. Let's do it again soon, Drew!

Getting into EVERYTHING!


Watch this Drew! Ride em' cowboy!

Yahoo! Watch me go!



It was 'Community Helper' week at school. Friday, the fire trucks came! I love my fireman hat!


That's right Drew. Take your time. He's very gentle.


Watchin' the Dawgs with my dad. One of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday.


Such a sweet girl!


Drew loved Daddy! She spent lots of time cuddling up.


Pay attention guys. This is the best part of the book: 'S is for Sunshine, Snake and Snail'. Am I boring you, Drew?

What a crew!


The weekend was nice and relaxing. Thanks for visiting, Drew. We love you!

Rough Stuff

So, it has been a pretty rough (and scary) couple of days.

The good news is that I seem to be on the road to recovery. But, let me start at the beginning...

About a month ago, I had my first ear infections (double ones, no less). So, my doctor prescribed me Amoxicillin. This was my first round of antibiotics ever. They worked really well and cleared my ear infections up right away.

Then, about a week ago, I woke up with a high fever. So, it was off to the doctor yet again. This time, I was diagnosed with strep throat. Yuck! So, we were given another round of Amoxicillin to clear it up. Worked like a charm...or so it seemed!

On my 7th day of this round, I broke out in horrible hives about an hour after my morning dose. Mommy took me straight into the doctor, and he quickly diagnosed me with an allergic reaction to my antibiotics. But, he told us not to worry. We'd start a Benadryl regiment and I'd be good as new in now time. Sounded ok to us. So, we headed on home.

Unfortunately, by the evening, things were much worse. So, Mommy called my doctor again. He added an oral steroid to our regiment and told us to hang in there.

The next morning, things were not getting better. In fact, my 'spots' were everywhere and I was miserable. So, we made a late afternoon doctor's appointment and tried to hang in there through the morning. Bampa came to help Mommy with me, and we headed to the doctor around 2:00. By the time we got there, my hives were worse than ever and I was running 103 fever! No good!

So, my doctor gave me and Epinephrine shot, a steroid shot and told us to keep going with our other medicines. If things got worse, he told us to call.

The shots seemed to help for the evening. But, by the next afternoon, Thursday, things went from bad to worse. Not only were my hives the worst they'd been (we didn't even know that was possible!), but my fever was up again and I was very, very swollen all over my hands, feet and face. So, after a quick talk with our doctor, Mommy packed me up and we headed to the Emergency Room at Children's in Atlanta. Daddy met us along the way (thank goodness!) and we got to the ER as quickly as possible.

After a 3 hour wait, we were seen at the ER. I was a very unhappy camper during this wait, and I made sure everyone knew it! Everyone was really kind and patient though, and eventually we made it to see the doctor. After lots of tests and evaluations, we got the news that I'd be admitted that night. The doctor's suspected I was having a very bad allergic reaction to my Amoxicillin, but they wanted to spend some more time getting to the bottom of things.

We got to our room around 1:30 in the morning, and tried to settle in for a very long night.

Very little sleeping took place that night. I had lots of visits from doctors, nurses, techs and others helping to take care of me. I really tried to hang in there, through.

The next day brought much more of the same. We spent the day visiting with doctors and telling our story. I was a trooper though all of the poking and prodding. I was such a big boy with my 'boo-boos' and was extra-special careful with my IV. Finally we got my diagnosis. The doctors believed that I was suffering from a Serum-like Sickness with Erythema Multiforme as a result of an allergic reaction from my Amoxicillin. (Phew! That was a mouthful!)

The good news was that they believed that a very intense treatment schedule of steroids and antihistamines would help me to feel better before long. The doctors wanted to keep me another night, too. No fun.

But, the next morning, we got up after another long night to find that our prayers had been answered! I looked like myself again! Sure, I still had some 'spots'. But, I looked and felt soooo much better! My new medicines were really helping! So, my doctor sent us home with lots and lots of medicines that I'll be taking for the next month.

The best news is that the next day, today, I am still doing great! My flare-ups may still come and go, but they are under control and I am feeling and looking so much better! No more Amoxicillin for me!!!

Here are my spots on the first day of my 'reaction'.


Believe it or not, this the best I looked for days.
We decided to spare all of you the worst of it. Pretty scary stuff!

My first night in the ER. What an exhausting experience!


Mommy, Daddy and I want to say a special thank you to everyone at Children's who took such good care of me! You were all amazing! Also, thank you to my visitors, Grandmommy, Bampa, Gam'ma, Aunt Mel and Ms. Nancy. And, thank you to all of you who called, offered to visit and help out, and sent out prayers and special thoughts.

I am so loved and am such a lucky little boy!