DAY 14: HIVES!
A bit stressful today. Richard woke up with hives under his arms. By 2:00 p.m., they had spread down to his knees. They’re also creeping up, but no further than under his chin (so far). They’re all the way down his arms – even on the palms of his hands. We have Benadryl, but it’s children’s Benadryl so I gave him 3 teaspoons instead of 2. I gave him some this morning but it hasn’t stopped the spread. Might be wishful thinking on my part but it seems the ones under his arms are not as red as the new ones so maybe some are starting to fade. Richard has never had hives before so this is a new experience for him. Zach had hives a few years ago. His was a reaction to new fertilizer at the local golf course. He had them everywhere and they didn’t go away for two weeks.
Richard is not running a fever and there’s no vomiting or diarrhea. His face isn’t swollen. Neither is his tongue or throat (or I wouldn’t be typing this right now). I have asked him about 20 times if he wants me to call the doctor but he keeps saying no. Once we arrived at our new campground today (somewhere in Timbuktu, Pennsylvania), he took a cool shower and I made him a nice cool spot on the bed with a fan to his side. I also gave him my lap desk so he can work if he wants. No cable TV here so he can either work, surf the ‘Net…or take a nap. He’s doing the latter right now.
Trying to figure out what caused it. When you’re on the road, you’re exposed to all kinds of new stuff.
Here’s new stuff he’s been exposed to in the past 48 hours:
MONDAY:
1. New campground pool. Loads of chemicals and heaven knows what kind of bodily excretions. Eeewww!!!
2. Campground pizza. Yummy…but ingredients unknown.
TUESDAY:
1. More swimming – same pool
2. Brand new bottle of sunscreen (used by Max and Mason also – no reaction by them…not that that means anything)
3. Cherry red slush drink from campground cafe (probably contains more chemicals than water)
4. New green tea peach diet Snapple
WEDNESDAY at 4:00 a.m. is when he woke me up and asked me if I could see what was itching.
Not much itching now but the burning under his arms is bothering him. I looked and he’s scratched himself pretty good under there. I dug through all the cabinets, the first aid kit, and an extra backpack of toiletries we have on board and found a brand new tube of Hydrocortisone. He was happy to see that.
If I had a tow vehicle, I’d probably drag him to a clinic but he’s adamant. He doesn’t get freaked out about medical stuff like I do. I’d also go buy adult strength Benadryl. But, we’re stuck with what we have for now.
We do have a Scooter on the back of the RV that goes 50 mph. Richard had it ramped up so you can drive it on main roads if you need to. Problem is…I couldn’t get it off the doohickey on the back by myself if I tried though I’m sure I could get a fellow camper here to help. Even if I could, I’ve never driven the thing before.
If he gets worse, I know how to dial 9-1-1 and, yes, I already put the campground address and phone number near my phone just in case. But, I’m thinking it’s just a bad case of hives and if he were going to start having trouble breathing, that would have started hours ago. My imagination won’t give it a rest until he starts turning a corner, though. We’ve had several emergency room trips on the road in the past so one more wouldn’t be terribly out of the ordinary (sigh…).
Have to go cook dinner. Don’t worry. I’m only feeding him stuff he’s eaten many times before. I’m also making him drink tons of water to flush whatever the allergen is out of his system.
UPDATE: My sister called. She was at the campground with us last night. She has an itchy, red raised spot on her thigh, the size of a dime. She thinks it’s poison ivy. We’ll see. They both drank some of that peach tea, and they both swam in the pool (we all did) and Autumn drank some cherry slush drink today. Mason did, too, but he’s clean. Just checked him. All of us swam but Max, Mason and I are fine. Of course, different people have reactions to different things. More updates later, as spots develop…
ANOTHER UPDATE: It was a long shot but I walked down to the campground store with Max and Mason and they had individual packets of Benadryl for sale! I bought three packets, enough for the next 12 hours. Richard was very happy to hear that when we got back. I won’t let him take any for the next two hours, though, because the kids’ dose won’t wear off until 7:30.
Max and Mason are happy because I bought them each a small toy (since they’re stuck at the RV all night – no pool and no park). Max picked out a cap gun…but we didn’t buy any caps. I’m not interested in torturing myself and everyone around our RV, too. Mason picked out a toy car that is towing a toy RV. Um, I think he has four toy RVs now. 
UPDATE: 7:10 p.m. – He’s up from his nap and the hives are definitely lighter than they were earlier. He thinks it’s because he’s not as hot as he was when we arrived this afternoon. That may be the case but they also haven’t spread further down his legs or to his face (seems to have stopped at his knees and upper neck for now). I’m about to give him his dose of Benadryl for grown-ups.
UPDATE: 11:45 p.m. – It is still spreading, down to Richard’s feet on the front of his legs, but not past the backs of his knees in the back. It’s spread more to his palms but not up to his face or even the upper part of the back of his neck. Considering it spread so quickly this morning to almost his entire body within just a few hours, the hives have really slowed down.
He has lots of broken blood vessels under his skin where he was scratching under his arms and also behind his knees and in the inside of his elbows, where the bends of the skin are. Those areas are pretty startling.
But, the “old hives” (the ones he got this morning and early this afternoon) are definitely lighter than the new hives so his body is fighting it pretty well.
Other than the itching/burning, he seems to feel just fine. I think it’s more of an inconvenience for him while it’s been an afternoon and evening full of fretting and hand-wringing for me.