Here We Go Again...

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Hope has started breaking out in hives again. The first episode (since her hospital stay), was Tuesday. Again, it seems to be heat-induced. She had been at cheerleading practice (in the unairconditioned school gym) that morning. She came home and within 5 minutes, she began to complain of feeling itchy. I checked her over, looking for signs of hives, as she stood there scratching at her head and arms. At first, there was no sign of them. But within a minute or so, small tiny welts started to appear; one on her wrist, one on her arm. OK, I said, we're going to have to use the epi pen. No amount of coercion could convince her to do it herself. Even the threat of spending the rest of her Jr. High life tied to her mama's apron strings! ;)

Unfortunately, due to a *technical difficulty*, the first pen was not administered completely and a second injection had to be given. Naturally, she was no more prepared to try it the 2nd time, than she was the first! She did admit afterward, that she really could not feel the needle, but I think the stress and anxiety of it all was just too much for her. Within seconds, the itching was gone.

Then yesterday, she had cheerleading practice again (in the morning this time) and did OK. Came home, played outside for a while, and then came in to eat lunch. She sat across the table from me eating and then started to scratch at her arm. "Do you think it's a bug bite, mom?" she asked me. "No," I replied as I watched her scratch her head now, too.

I had her come to me so I could see her in better light, and sure enough, tiny white welts were starting to appear around the corner of her eye. Again, we needed to give the epi pen, and again, she refused to do it. At least herself. While this time, she was less emotional about the issue, she did allow me to hold her hand as I guided her in administering it into her thigh. "I didn't even feel the needle!" she exclaims. This time, it took about 10 minutes for the epi to kick in.

Wednesdays are our doctor's day off, so I didn't bother trying to call her about this, but I'm thinking that Hope is going to need to go back on to the steroids again. Our doctor warned us this might happen when she went off of them.

Everything was going fine again until 2:45 this morning. Hope woke me up to tell me she woke up itching. I flipped the lamp on to get a better look at her as she stood in front me scratching her back, her stomach, her legs, her arms...a quick look confirmed what I had expected to see. Hives all over her back, on her thighs, starting on her arms, and a few small ones on her face. She said the itching woke her up. This time, she calmly and skillfully administered the epi pen herself.

If you've ever had epi, you know that it makes you jittery. It gives you an adrenaline rush (which is what epinephrine is...a form of adrenaline). So she went downstairs to watch TV for a while since sleep wasn't going to be an option. However, 45 minutes later, she came back upstairs to tell me she was still itching. I noticed that the hives seemed to be covering more area, but had not progressed as quickly as they have in the past. I decided we would wait a full hour before going to the ER (our doctor told us if we needed to give a second dose of epi, we'd best be getting her to the ER).

After 15 more minutes, she said the itching had stopped. After another 15 minutes, the hives began to regress.

I still cannot seem to determine what is setting it off, other than when she gets overheated. I have read a few things about exercise induced reactions, but from what I've read on that, it is combined with eating a certain food prior to exercising. And that doesn't seem to be the case with Hope. Especially since she's also having breakouts in the middle of the night while sleeping. Needless to say, I'll be speaking with my doctor first thing this morning when the office opens.