Lyme Disease??

Let me just preface this by saying that I am soooo grateful for good health insurance. I have been to the Dr. for the kids lately so often, that I am embarrassed that they recognize our family when we walk in the door.

So, here's Ricky's story. A couple of weeks ago he was extremely sick. He had a fever for over a week, complained that he couldn't move his legs, and ended up with an awful looking rash all over his body. We went to the Dr. 2 times for this. The first time, she said, it was a virus and it should run its course. When Ricky was getting worse, instead of better, we took him back in to a quick clinic where the nurse diagnosed him with strep (even though the short test was negative). Well, after a priesthood blessing and antibiotics (which we discovered later that he didn't even need to take--and in fact they may have made him feel worse), he got better.

Then, last week, I discovered a new, crazy rash on his legs which continued to grow, turn purple on the insides and spread to his arms.

Again, his Dr. wasn't available, so I took him to the quick clinic where the nurse said she thought he had Lyme disease and prescribed antibiotics. The nurse wasn't confident about her diagnosis without a blood test, so she set us up with our usual Dr. the next day. I went home and did some research and disagreed with the Lyme Disease diagnosis, so I was glad to have an appointment with a real Dr.

At our appointment the next day, I asked the doc to look in Ricky's history to see if these things on his legs were related to his sickness 2 weeks ago. She said that the long strep test came back negative and he had a nasty virus back then. The two rashes, in her opinion, were probably unrelated. She brought another Dr. in to get his opinion on the "Lyme Disease." They both agreed that the rash looked like a simple case of hives and to not worry about taking yet another unnecessary round of antibiotics. His rash is completely gone now and we are glad. For all the hype about avoiding antibiotics, the clinic is sure quick to prescribe them.

In addition to Ricky's multiple visits to the Dr., I have taken Andrew two times for nurse maid's elbow. Then, Saturday night, I sat in the emergency room for 2 1/2 hours with Makayla because she fell hard off her bike and thought she broke her wrist. It turned out to be a sprain, which we were glad for, but not so happy about the long visit to the ER.

Do you like Makayla's new haircut?

Let's see if we can make it through the rest of the summer without any more Dr. visits!