Rash update

I took my guy to the pediatrician yesterday to see if he could figure out what the rash was.  Fortunately, our pediatrician had an opening, so we could see him.  On Saturday when hubby took him in it was another pediatrician who focused strictly on ruling out strep and not much else.  Had she only been a little more thorough, we might have had our answer before he broke out in the rash.

Since S's rash was only a trace on his face, and the rash on the rest of his body had begun to fade away, still very much there but it wasn't continuing to break out and was beginning to blob together like his face had, I almost didn't take him in.  I thought for sure he would tell me "It's viral" w/ nothing more specific.  I printed off the pictures I took of him the day before, at the height of the rash and brought them with me. 

The dr. walked in admiring the  pictures, LOL.  He then asked me a couple of questions about him coughing, he wasn't.  He listened to his lungs, then he listened to his lungs some more, then he listened to his lungs even more.  I noticed the look on his face and could tell he was really concentrating on those lung tones.  I told the other kids (because yes, they were all with me ) to stop talking so the doctor could hear. 

The dr. then asked a few more questions, I told him how last week he had been complaining of a pain in his upper abdomen and chest area.  All sort of in the middle with no real specific area rotating his hand above that area. 

The dr. then told me what he strongly believed to be the diagnosis and why.  We also went through all the typical childhood rashes and why they didn't fit those patterns, which is what we had figured in our research as well.

My little guy has Valley Fever.  The rash was "textbook", his symptoms of  pain in his stomach/chest go along w/ the pneumonia he most likely has as well because yes, he heard crackling in his lungs.

He sent us for a chest x-ray, where they confirmed fluid on his lungs.  Poor guy.  No wonder he's felt so miserable. :(

So now I wait for the Peds office to get back w/ me on what we're supposed to do next.  The good news is he's not contagious, he's getting better and being a healthy kid, he should get better fairly quickly w/o complications.  His rash might scare a few people while we're out, but he's cleared to be out in public.

Unless you live, or have lived, in an area that Valley Fever is present, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.  LOL  For those of us here in the SW desert, it's so common anyone who has lived here for an extended amount of time has probably contracted it.  Typically the symptoms are really mild and you don't even know you're sick.  Our ped. told us that he had just diagnosed a 6 year old a few weeks ago as well.  You can read more about Valley Fever here.


Thanks for helping us working through this and for your prayers.  He still needs prayers to clear his lungs quickly and w/o complications or long lasting effects, but for the most part, my guy is on the mend.

The hardest part now is keeping a 5 year old boy from running around non-stop all day long!