Bactrim

This, and any other sulfa-drugs, will never find their way into our house again!! As much as I don't think we will even want to remember this experience, I think I should document it, because it definitely threw our family for a loop! This is an EXTREMELY abbreviated version of the story--I don't really want to think about it all that much.

On our way to Tennessee for a weekend trip, Tyler noticed a rash on the backs of his arms. The rash continued to spread and Tyler began to feel a little off. He wasn't sleeping, waking up burning up or freezing cold, shaking in his sleep. I, at this point, was very worried. Tyler was bound and determined to make the best of his trip, so he pretty much just did his best to ignore it. He got a steroid dose-pack called into the pharmacy and began to take it the day before we came home. The rash went away, but Tyler continued to feel worse. On Wednesday of the next week, I pretty much made Tyler go to the doctor, by making the appointment myself and sending him out the door. They told him there that they were pretty sure the symptoms he was experiencing were an allergic reaction to an antibiotic he was taking. They told him to stop taking it, which he did that day. He stayed home from work, but returned the next day. Taking even more call-outs than usual throughout the rest of the week because he still wasn't sleeping well. Saturday, Tyler wasn't himself. While he dozed on the couch, I was getting the kids and everything ready to go to a birthday party Axl had been invited to. I woke him up when it was time to go out the door and he told me he wanted me to take him to the hospital. I was more frustrated than anything (I feel bad about this now) because I had been trying to get him to explain to me for a week and a half what exactly was wrong and most of the time I got a, "I've just never felt like this before". When I saw that his fingers and lips were turning blue, I decided we just needed to leave. Erin met us at the hospital and took Axl with her for the evening. Beginning when they took Tyler back into the emergency room things just took a turn for the worse. The rash started spreading like wildfire and Tyler began itching and swelling everywhere. His face looked bruised and of course, he was feeling like crap. They admitted him that night thinking that he was suffering from a tick-borne disease called Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Late that night he was moved to an actual room where the plan for me was to take Cooper home at 11pm to put her to bed and then return in the morning. At 11, though, she was sleeping soundly and Tyler was having a ROUGH time. He was not very responsive and his face and ears were extremely swollen. When I talked to the nurses about leaving they didn't sound very supportive so I decided to stay there with our infant daughter. Tyler was sweating through the sheets in his sleep and after the second sheet change the nurse took me to show me where the clean ones were so I could get them myself. Another nurse saw us in the hallway and said, "Oh, you came back". I told her that I had never left to which she responded, "We're just worried about your baby". I asked why and they told me that we were on the INFECTIOUS DISEASE floor. I was fuming mad as I walked back to Tyler's room and saw that we were surrounded by people with the notice on their doors. I guess the nurses didn't think that was important enough information to share at 11...only at 3 in the morning after whatever damage could have been done was done. I kept Cooper quarantined in our room until morning and took her staight home after that. Neither of our kids returned to the hospital after that. Over the next couple of days they would determine that it was, in fact, a SEVERE reaction to the antibiotic. Our life was thrown upside down for the next five days that Tyler was in the hospital waiting for his liver to repair itself from the allergic reaction (HUGE thanks to everyone who helped take care of our children), and then even more over the next three weeks that he was off work. (though by the end of it we were just enjoying his time off! :) ) I wish we had taken pictures everyday to show the progression, but we came home with just these.

So extremely grateful that all is well now. :)