New Rash - Anyone Ever Heard of HSP?

Henoch-Schonlein Purpura {say "hen-awk shern-line purr-purr-ah"} or HSP is a type of vasculitis, a group of disorders that cause blood vessel inflammation. In HSP, the inflammation causes bleeding in the small blood vessels in your skin, joints, intestines and kidneys. The main symptom is a purplish rash, mainly on the lower legs and buttocks. HSP also often causes abdominal pain and aching joints, and in some people, kidney problems. The symptoms usually last for about 4 to 6 weeks.

The exact cause of HSP is unknown. Doctors think HSP happens when a person's immune system doesn't fight an infection like it's supposed to and frequently follows an infection of the throat or breathing passages. HSP itself isn't contagious. Although Henoch-Schonlein Purpura can affect anyone, it's most common in children and young adults. HSP usually improves on its own.

Now, doesn't that sound just lovely? This rash that I posted a picture of Sunday night got worse and completely covered from his hips down to his toes, arms and a little on the back of his neck Monday morning.

I really was hopeful that this rash was allergy related and not something like THIS! Jacob, I'm happy to report, is doing much better. He's been given an oral steroid and the rash is fading. His ankle and knee joints were pretty swollen and that has gone down tremendously. Although, last night they had started to swell up a little bit again, I'm sure that was just from the activity of the day. Jacob's a little clingy and whinny, wouldn't you be? He's on the two hour rotation of Tylenol and Motrin for the pain and a little Benadryl here and there for the itchy part of the rash. But, he's in the hands of Nannie today, and will be for the next few days and maybe a few next week.

Monday was quite crazy. We were at the doctor's office first thing in the morning to check out this rash from Sunday and slight fever that had developed overnight. Little did I know what we were in for. We needed blood work, something that required a trip to the hospital and LOTS of poking and prodding at Jacob. {I can handle shots and immunizations, digging around with a needle in my kid's arm is NOT something I can handle. There were lots of tears and finally requesting the nurse at the lab to stop. That's when we had to go to the hospital, they needed someone from peds to do the blood draw.} A urine sample on a 10 month old is INTERESTING, and it took two tries and ALL DAY to get it. Jacob filled three diapers that night until they were leaking... once we didn't need the urine sample anymore, he totally knew what was up! We were in doctors offices, labs and at the hospital for a total of 5 hours and then I had to go back for another hour in the afternoon. The good news is Jacob's blood work and kidney workup came back looking great. So, no damage to anything thus far.

He goes to the Ear, Nose and Throat doc on Monday, and the plan is not only to address the ear infections themselves but all this other stuff that's coming with them, the allergy to medicine, the HSP... our pediatrician seems to think that tubes in the ears would really help in the prevention of most of the other issues going on. 5 days.... 5 days.