It Has Arrived!

St. Patrick's Day brought with it the miracle of spring! It's true - that is green grass from my yard that you see above. We have had temps in the 60's all week and today we even saw 70 degrees! I'm sure that there are those who live in more southern climes who will be bragging about 80 degree weather or some such nonsense but spring isn't nearly as pretty if you don't get snow. So there!

Now if only the storm they are predicting for Sunday and Monday does not bring a fresh blanket of snow.

St. Patty's Day

I nearly forgot - today is the day where we tell our favorite Irish jokes. Here goes:

Why don't you call an Irish man drunk?

Because it would be redundant!

Leave yours in the comments...

Good Health

We just returned from the doctor's where SP had his urine and blood pressure tested. The doctor says his urine is completely clear of protein and his blood pressure is excellent. So it looks as if he is recovering well. Yay! We just have to keep an eye out for recurring symptoms and go back next month for another urine test.

Unfortunately, when we got home, he started throwing up when he got out of the car. So he is staying home from school today.

Funny little side note - the notes for the appointment said it was a follow-up for "hospital". I'm thinking that the nurse who scheduled our appointment was unfamiliar with HSP and wrote down hospital when I said HSP.

PSA

Here is where I do a shameless promotion. It seems as though at least one person - usually more! - has been sick for the last month. I was sick the latter part of January. After about a week, I was searching through the cold remedy aisle in desperation when I came across Airborne. So I decided to give the nighttime formula a try, hoping that it would at least alleviate some of the incessant hacking that I was doing every time I laid down to sleep. It seemed to help a little and I started feeling better after a day or two. So on Friday, when I started feeling runny and flu-y again, I immediately bought some more Airborne because I just couldn't handle another week and a half of feeling blech. I bought some daytime stuff and some more of the nighttime stuff. It didn't seem to lessen the symptoms any - Theraflu is usually good for that - but as of this morning, I no longer feel sick. No more runny nose, a slight tickle in my chest when I breathe deeply, but no headache, no sinus pressure, no ear congestion, no fever, nothing. NT also started showing symptoms on Friday and he still has the runny nose and cough and a slight fever. His runny nose has also started turning that nasty green color. At least he'll have something green for tomorrow!

So there you have the results of my ultra-scientific study. I think they have an Airborne children's formula and if I'm a good mom, I may go buy it for NT. Then I'll give you all the details of that study. Perhaps not quite FDA quality studies, but I do what I can!

Weather Update

Since I know you all care so much, I thought I would update you on our current weather. When I checked the temperature at 7:30am, it was a balmy 4 degrees. Two hours later, we are boasting 0 degrees.



Because it wasn't cold enough yet.

Seriously???

Yup - that's another 12 inches of snow for our frosty enjoyment!

Waiting for Act III

I'm generally not superstitious. However, I find myself in a holding pattern. Sunday brought an unpleasant event and today brought a diagnosis of Henoch-Schonlein Pupura for SP. SP has been fighting off some sort of congestion/coughing gunk for about 2 weeks. Saturday night he began complaining that his legs and feet hurt when he walked and that he had "mosquito bites" on his feet. It was bed-time and I assumed that it was probably due to being worn down from his illness and having gone on an outing up the canyon to see the elk. I put him to bed and he seemed fine on Sunday. Monday he came home from school complaining that his penis hurt. I put him in the tub for a bath in case it was just irritation from not being clean (he has been a bit sloppy lately when he pees and has had to change his pants and unders several times because of a failure to properly aim). As I filled the tub with water, I noticed that his legs were covered with little red dots - kind of like insect bites except a few that were rather purple. He also had a rash on the tops of his toes.

You can see a few of the spots on his foot and leg here but the flash makes them a little hard to see. The ones on his thigh were dime-size and purple.

I called my mom and asked her opinion but it wasn't anything she was familiar with. She suggested we go to the doctor which I had already decided we would do in the morning. After I got the boys to bed, I started thinking about the spots combined with the pain in the legs and feet and decided it sounded alot like HSP. Since my niece had had this several years ago, I called Sillya to ask her opinion. During the course of the conversation, we discovered that scrotal pain is common in boys with HSP and I was about 80% sure at that point. First thing this morning, I called the doctor and we went in at 9am. It wasn't our regular pediatrician but another doctor in the same office. I told him the symptoms and he began to look him over. As he did so, I noticed how swollen SP's feet and ankles were. The doctor said he was pretty sure he knew what it was but wanted to do a urine test to confirm it. As he left the exam room, I was 100% sure he was going to tell us HSP after the urine test. After the test was complete, he came back and pronounced it HSP and started telling how rare it was and began to tell me about it. I told him I was familiar with it because of my niece.

But since all three of you - my faithful readers, you! - are probably not familiar with HSP, I'll give you a brief overview. It's basically an allergic reaction to a virus the patient has had recently. Doctors still aren't sure of the exact trigger but that is the best guess. The result is an inflammation of the blood vessels which then bleed into the skin causing a rash (which in fancy doctor-talk is called purpura. Henoch and Schonlein are the doctor who identified the ailment and his teacher.) The intestines and kidneys may also bleed. The skin rash - which generally occurs on the legs, buttocks and elbows - is usually accompanied by pain and swelling in the joints and abdominal pain. There isn't really a treatment for it other than pain management and the symptoms go away on their own in approximately a month. Rarely, kidney damage and/or failure occur. We have been quite fortunate thus far in that Griffin's symptoms haven't been much more painful than what you would expect with a serious flu. My niece was in incredible pain and had severe swelling.

Bottom line: we need to visit the doctor once a week for the next month to three months to test SP's urine and blood pressure and then once a month for up to six months until it is certain that he is better. I'm actually somewhat relieved that it's not flea bites as the Mister suggested!

But supposedly things happen in three's, so I am a bit leery of what's around the corner. I have been been able to deal with the first two occurrences and I'm hoping that whatever happens next, I will be able to continue to trust in the Lord to help me through. Any prayers or encouraging thoughts are welcome.

P.S. I could also use some advice on how to convince the Mister not to treat SP as if he were going to die tomorrow. He tends to be a little pessimistic at the best of times and all he has been able to see is that kidney failure is a possibility. I'm not sure that I can handle one more despairing look or depressed sigh when he looks at SP. On the plus side, I can probably convince him to handle a few more bedtimes!