Eczema Herpeticum

     Kajsa has eczema. It is the worst right in the creases of her elbows.  On February 22, 2012 Kajsa's left elbow started to get these small blister looking sores where her eczema was. I took her to the doctor right away and told him that we had seen her cousin that weekend and he had impetigo, (which is very contagious).  He looked at her and agreed that he thought it was impetigo and prescribed a topical cream. He told us to put it on any red spot that showed up pretty much.  We used the cream and quickly started seeing other spots so we lathered her up in this topical cream. 

   The spots started spreading everywhere, soon she was covered in these red horrible looking blister things. She kept scratching her arms so Kyle and I went and bought some gauze and self-adhesive tape and wrapped her up in it so that she couldn't spread it anymore. That night around 8pm I noticed that she was wincing every time she would drink her juice. It was stinging her mouth. I looked in her mouth and could see these white sores on her tongue. I immediately called the after hours doctor and asked if impetigo is found in the mouth.  She said no. Bring her in! 

    I took her over to the after hours care for our 8:40 appointment and we got in to see the doctor at 9:50. We were tired and miserable and people keep looking at Kajsa like she had leprosy or something. I don't blame them; she looked AWFUL! When we got to see the doctor she took one look at her and said she has eczema herpeticum. Ok...what is that. Basically, when an eczema wound is scratched and open and the herpes virus comes in contact with that open skin it causes this infection and spreads across the body like wild fire. She told me that the topical cream we had been putting on her had actually caused it to spread even worse :( So sad. She told me that we could admit her into the hospital and get her an I.V. to make sure that she isn't getting dehydrated since she got all of these sores in her mouth.  I said I would rather wait out the night and take her in to see the Pediatrician in the morning and go from there. She prescribed a viral antibiotic to kill the herpes and we went to Walgreens at almost midnight to pick it up. Of course, Walgreens system was having problems so Kajsa and I drove over to Rite-Aid to get her prescription. 

   I took her into the doctor the next morning and he took another look at her and immediately agreed with the after hours doctor.  He told me because it had spread so much and gotten so bad that he was going to call the infectious disease doctor at Primary Children's hospital to see if we needed to take her to the hospital to give her the medicine in a strong dose through an I.V. I was pretty worried at his point. He had every nurse in the office come in and look at her because they had never seen this particular disease before on a child and so bad.  The Primary Children's doctor said that the oral would be ok for now and just watch her very carefully. They said it would take 2 weeks to start to go away and that we had to stay in the house because it was contagious.

    We took Kajsa home and Kyle gave her a blessing. About 6pm that night I remembered that our Bishop is a chiropractor and also uses the NAET method for healthing allergies and certain diseases. He treated my kids for their milk allergies and they are completely gone. That's another story :)  I called him and asked if he treated herpes.  He said yes and that we could come over immediately. He treated her that night and no joke in the morning she looked completely different.  Unfortunately, I only took a picture on my phone when she was at her worst so it's really pixely but she didn't even look like herself. The one right below it is the next afternoon. Seriously, a miracle. The next day she looked so much better.  It was a huge answer to prayers. Trey ended up catching it the next day but we took him immediately to Dr. Hershey and he never got bad.  During all of this my amazing Great Grandma Ruth Dahle passed away at the age of 97. I went to her funeral without the kids and Kyle and then had to rush home to Kajsa and Trey. It was not a fun week.