Another mystery rash

On Thursday morning, when JF woke up, I noticed him rubbing his belly, right at the waistband of his pajamas. I didn't think anything of it, at first. After giving JF his breakfast and medications (including his Lamictal), when I helped him take off his pajamas, I noticed the rash. It was red, raised, and concentrated on his belly and hands (the back of each hand and on his wrist). There were also red dots, the width of a pencil eraser, one or two sprinkled on each body part. And it was apparently very itchy.

We had been told to watch for allergic reactions while increasing the Lamictal dosage, particularly a rash. The problem was, he had also started Zithromax for bronchitis, just this past Monday. The pharmacy's information sheets for both of these medications said that a rash is a sign of an allergic reaction. If this rash was an allergic reaction, which medication had caused it?

We called the neurologist because she had prescribed the Lamictal, and we called the pediatrician because he had prescribed the antibiotics. The neurologist said it was probably the antibiotics. The pediatrician said JF has had Zithromax before without any reaction, so that's unlikely. After asking lots of questions about the rash, the pediatrician told my husband that we should just keep an eye on it. I insisted on an appointment, because we needed to know whether to discontinue either medication, and we needed to know this before his bedtime dose. We made an appointment for 1:15 that afternoon.

Meanwhile, I was worried about being late for work, and AF was worried because this was the day a crew would paint the outside of the house, and they were scheduled to arrive at 8:00. The pediatrician said we could send JF to daycare, so we did. When I dropped him off, I told two or three teachers about the rash, explaining that we think it's an allergic reaction to something, and we're discussing it with his doctors. Then I went into the office at work just to grab my laptop and head back home. I wanted to be prepared for anything.

As it turned out, AF took JF to the 1:15 appointment, so I was able to work a full day from home. However, I was very worried about this rash. If we don't figure out what had caused it soon, wouldn't it get worse? If it gets worse, will he go into anaphylactic shock and stop breathing?

I took out my frustration on a couple of co-workers, by e-mail, when they demonstrated quite thoroughly how defective their listening skills are. I'll probably regret it later, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The pediatrician looked at JF's rash. He showed AF how the rash "pulses" when you stretch it. (Apparently, this helps to diagnose it.) He suggested Cortisone 10 for the itching. He told us to stop the Zithromax, but still keep an eye on him. The bronchitis is apparently gone.

AF put JF to bed that night, so I didn't get a good look at the rash. The next morning, I was frightened by how much it had spread. There were many new red dots, and the older ones had expanded, joining to form large areas of rash. Also, the bigger dots and areas had a red outline with various colors in the middle: some were normal skin color, some white, and some were blueish. I asked AF to take a look, and he said it looked that way the previous night. It had apparently gotten worse gradually over the course of the day, but then stabilized overnight. That was reassuring.

AF took JF to daycare on Friday morning, and then brought him back. The daycare now required a note from the doctor. We called the pediatrician. While we waited for a call back, we read to JF "Put Me in the Zoo" by Robert Lopshire. (I figured it was appropriate: a red-spotted creature gets thrown out of the zoo, and then proceeds to show two children what he can do with his spots.) The doctor faxed a note to the daycare. I was still worried about the allergic reaction getting worse, but I was relieved that the daycare accepted him.

On Friday afternoon, I called the pediatrician, because I thought we should be scheduling more allergy tests, and it seemed odd that the pediatrician hadn't recommended it. The doctor explained that it was a contact rash, like poison ivy (but not poison ivy). There were no allergy tests that would help, and there was no danger of anaphylactic shock. Apparently, AF had tried to relay this information to me, but I didn't get it until the doctor explained it.

Then the daycare rejected JF again. Twice in the same day! Apparently, a different director had arrived, one who didn't like the doctor's note. She called me at work, and I told her what I had just learned, that it was in the same category as poison ivy. She pounced on that, and said that she has seen her share of poison ivy, and JF's rash isn't like any rash she's ever seen. She was genuinely concerned. By this time it was 4:00 PM, and we didn't bother to argue about it. AF took him home.

By Saturday morning, the rash had faded noticeably. Instead of an angry red, it was merely pink. But the centers were even more colorful than before: blueish, purplish, brownish (bruise colors). The ones on his legs looked uglier than the ones on his upper body. I took pictures with my cell phone. Over the course of the day, the pink turned redder, especially in the legs, but it was still better than the previous day.

By this morning, it had all faded to pink, even the centers.

I wonder whether this is related to his previous rash, which was diagnosed as HSP. The current rash can't be HSP, because it isn't limited to his legs this time.

I've been reading Unraveling the Mystery of Autism by Karyn Serroussi. There's a section about the role that yeast plays in many cases of autism. I learned that many autistic kids have yeast overgrowth, and when treated with Nystatin, after the initial die-off, the autistic symptoms improve. Before treatment, these children have fungal metabolites in their urine.

I thought about JF and his strange rash. He's allergic to mold. If the antibiotics had caused a yeast overgrowth in his body, his urine would be full of fungal metabolites. If he managed to wet his sheets with this urine, would that explain his rash? It fits with the pattern on his skin. Didn't AF say something recently about forgetting to change JF's sheets before putting him down for a nap?

Ugh! I'm so frustrated!

My husband is still skeptical about biomedical treatments. He said he wants to do his own research. That's fine, but when?

The pediatrician doesn't want to get involved with biomedical tests or treatments. The appointment with the DAN doctor isn't until June. The appointment with the developmental pediatrician is this week, but I have no idea how supportive she will be of any biomedical stuff.

I asked my sister-in-law, a nurse, to take a look at www.GenerationRescue.org. I asked her to look for flaws. I was confident that she would be impressed, and would help me persuade other people, including my husband, of the validity of biomedical tests and treatments. She wasn't impressed. She listed what she perceived to be its flaws, but she didn't back up her statements with quotes. It seemed that she hadn't really read much of the site, but instead just listed her pre-conceived views.

I was hurt at first. I thought about not replying, but I figured that she would expect some kind of reply. So I responded to each one of her points, politely. I gave her specific quotes and links to specific pages on the site, including a link to the page about the CDC and the Simpsonwood meeting (mercury myth #17). This was Wednesday night. I haven't heard back from her yet. I hope that's a good sign.

So I wait. I wait for appointments, I wait for my husband to do his research, I wait for my sister-in-law to reply to my e-mail message. I wait for people to understand what I understand. Meanwhile, JF keeps getting hit with strange illnesses, and he keeps getting older, reducing the effectiveness of any treatment.

I also realized this weekend, while JF is on his 15-week schedule of increasing doses of Lamictal, we shouldn't try anything new. We should try only one new thing at a time. During these 15 weeks, we have to increase the dosage every two weeks. If we started a GFCF diet, or supplements, or anything else during the 15 weeks, and if JF gets better or worse, we won't know whether it was the Lamictal or the other thing that did it.

And Karyn Seroussi doesn't mention anything about mercury, but states that autism is caused by the vaccines themselves. Why focus solely on the vaccines? Why does Generation Rescue focus solely on mercury? Can't they both be right?