Monday, November 26, 2007

BLACK-EYED BLUES

No, I didn't get punched in the face as the title of this posting would suggest. It's Kierra (again). And no, she didn't get punched in the face either. However, she is sporting two huge allergy shinners again. Sigh....

Friday, I had just gotten home from dropping the twins off at school, and I get a call from the main office that Kierra threw up and I needed to come pick her up. I thought "great!" and told them they might as well pull Jenna out too, since I'm not going to drive back and forth all afternoon for children. I get to the school, and Kierra and Jenna are sitting there, and the teacher explains that Kierra just got up, walked over to the waste basket and threw up. Now, I think they should be very grateful. Most kids would just start to bawl, and throw up on that crummy rug they have on the kindy floor. Not my kid - she knows you need some sort of receptacle if you are going to blow chunks. So I look her over (brought extra clothes just in case), and we booted it on home.

We get home and she's chirpy as ever... no signs of being sick. However, I DO notice that her eyes are a little puffy and red looking. Almost swollen. I figure she's tired. She eats, keeps it down... and I lament because I basically pulled her out of school for nothing. But oh well - it was the responsible thing to do. WELL the next morning I get her up and her eyes are extremely swollen and puffy, the underlids especially, and just purple-red! I kinda freaked out and woke up poor hubby (Saturday is his sleep-in day), and told him to look at Kierra's eyes! She honestly looked like someone put on make-up on her to make her look like a zombie!! So of course I call our doctor's office, who is actually open on Saturdays. They are only taking walk-in's but we convince them to put us first on the list.

I get her over there and the doctor looks at her and is shocked with how badly her eyes look. He says it's an allergy of some sort, and prescribes these allergy relief drops. This is all he can really prescribe he tells me, and if it gets worse, Kierra will have to get a referral to see a pediatric optomologist to get these steroid drops. GREAT! After I leave, I go to three different pharmacies trying to find these drops... no one has them in stock. I go home and phone around and finally find someone who carries them (no small feat there).

The worst part is Kierra looks horrible! I hate to admit it but it's almost embarrassing taking her out anywhere! She looks like a child who is either abused or has a very bad illness. Her eyes are so puffy underneath that there are three folds in her lowerlids. Plus she keeps rubbing them and making them worse.

The thing is I have no clue what started this. She had this three weeks ago after her flu shot, but I thought it was a reaction from the shot since she also got hives on her face. Now I'm wondering if it's not something more going on with her. I know for a fact she didn't eat anything she shouldn't. So it's a mystery. Our family doctor is back at the end of the month, so I'm taking her back on the 5th of December. Until I get to put drops in her eyes four times a day (yeah you do this with an autistic kid), and hope they clear up soon.

9 comments:

tulipmom said...

I hope you are able to figure out what's causing this. I know how difficult it can be to put drops in their eyes several times a day.

Anonymous said...

Oh, no. I wouldn't think it was the flushot. My son had a reaction to the flu shot and it was within 12 hours. It sounds more like food. Did she have anything unusual at school?

Hope this passes quickly. Poor thing.

Lainey-Paney said...

AWWWW. That sounds so painful.
I hope they figure out what she's allergic to!

Twisted Cinderella said...

I hope you get it figured out. Poor girl!

I understand the embarressment. Princess gets mystery rashes that are a pain to figure out. she always has. When it gets on her face sometimes, I feel like people are judging me or are afraid that she has some horrible contagious disease.

Anonymous said...

Hope they get her straightened out soon!! And good luck with the eyedrops - that doesn't usually go well with any kid!

Maria said...

You know, I have only heard of this happening one time before and it was because a child had a severe allergy to marigolds and during class reading time, he sat on the floor right next to the plant.

It took awhile to isolate it, but it turned out to be the marigolds...

So...a plant?

God, good luck with the eye drops. Liv has an ear infection and besides the antibiotic they gave her this antihistamine like powder that she has to eat (her md compared them to "pop rocks" but neglected to say that they taste like cat litter...) and getting her to take them is a struggle. Poor Kierra! Poor you!!

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know I thought of you today. I took Peaches back to the Dr. to get her ears checked post ear infection and sinus infection. The first thing the Dr. said to me when he walked in was, "What happened to her eye?" Um, nothing. That's why we're here. Her ears seem to still be a problem, and her eyes look like she walked into a door.

He gave us a prescription decongestant and ear drops to keep everything cleared out. We shall see if that works...

Dayna said...

Could it be sinus related? A bad sinus infection will cause very dark circles, and if you're draining out the back of the throat, it could cause you to throw up. And, by way, when my oldest gets a bad sinus infection, he has drained out his eyes, which doc thought was pink eye. Nothing, ever, not once, came out of his nose.

Anonymous said...

I promise you it is sinus related. My son had horrible purple rings for almost a year and we were told over and over again it was allergies. I had him on Zyrtec, eye drops, nose spray, etc. Finally we got a new pedi and he took one look and said he needed at CT of sinuses. Sure enough, enormous sinus infection. If there is a back-up in the sinuses it will cause the purple/blue rings around the eyes. People would actually ask me "what is wrong with your son". It looks horrible. Anyway, if it persists get it checked out. You don't want to mess around with sinuses....too close to the brain.