Trenton's foot

Okay, here's what we know. The name of this friekish disease is called Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. The written description that they gave me is this. HSP is an immune system reaction. It causes damage to small blood vessels int he skin. This causes a rash in the lower part of the body. It may also affect blood vessels of the joints, intestines, kidneys and other organs.

The exact cause is unknown. A recent viral or bacterial infection, certain food or drugs may be a factor. Improvement occures in 4-6 weeks. However, the illness may recur during the next six months. This is not a contagious disease and it cannot be spread to others.

What the doctor told us is that basically is blood vessels are bursting. What you see going on on the outside of his body is most likely going on on the inside of his body as well, that is why he is in so much pain. They basically don't know anything about this disease. There is no real cure, they just treat it kind of like a cold and treat the symptoms. So he is on a steroid and motrin to help with the pain.

So this is what happened. A week ago today Trenton started complaining of stomach pain. Our kids have constipation issues, so that is what we were sure was going on. Wednesday afternoon, I took the kids in to get their flu shots. While we were there, I had the doctor take a look at Trenton, just in case. The Doc couldn't find anything wrong with him, even said his stomach was soft, but from his "potty" habits that week, thought that I was probably right and to keep pushing the fruit and juice to get this through him. He also warned that there was a horrible stomach virus going around so not to get over zealous just in case this goes the other way. So..... take him home, that night he is sitting on the arm of the couch and so his pant leg is riding up and he says, "And what the heck is that on my leg?" So me and Steve take a look and I instantly thought he had bed bugs. But at closer examination, you could tell that whatever it was, it was coming from underneath his skin. The top of his skin was basically smooth and there were no marks. (Of course we still checked out his bed really good) At this point there was no bruising, it was just small dots on both of his legs below the knee. He had about 8 on each leg and they were about triple the size of a chiken pock. So we gave him some benedryl, in case it was an allergic reaction to the flu shot. Trenton said, "Google it, mom." So I did, what I came up with was phlebitis of the skin, which causes tiny blood clots under the skin (I am genious). Anyway, I took Trenton to work with me the next morning and got him in with the first available doc. She was certain it was a rash, but could not pin point it since it did not blanch. She brought in the master Dr. Amann, he took a look and said it looked like and infection. He rattled off a few different things it could be, but the one I understood was "staff infection". They gave us a script for and anti-biotic and said he could go to school. Said it was contagious with skin on skin contact, but he is of course wearing pants. So he goes to school Thurs and Fri. I gave him 2 doses of med. on Thurs and on Friday gave him a dose when he got home from school. His stomach was still hurting and basically killing him Friday afternoon. He threw-up an hour after I gave him the meds and kept on that roller coaster all night. Again, severe stomach pain. Tonja calls that night and said I could give him some of my phengren, which I did. It stopped the vomitting, but not the pain. Saturday, more pain, and now he is starting with a fever. I read all the instructions for the meds and they say: "may cause vomitting and diarrhea". Oh great, so now we are not sure what to do, and the spots on his legs are climbing. We decide to wait until Sunday, maybe his cramps will stop and we can try the meds again. At that point, we were really thinking that he had the flu and the leg infection. So Sunday I go to church and when I get home he says, "My foot really hurts." We take a look. Oh yeah, the top of his foot was swollen bad, and his ankle was really swollen, and now it hurt to touch. So I take him up to the clinic. We get there, there is an hour wait. While we are in the waiting room, his stomach cramping comes back with a vengence. I am trying really hard not to cry, very hard when your baby is in so much pain. Finally they get him back there. I gave the doc the complete history. She didn't want to give him anything in case what was going on was effecting vital organs, because we could shut them down. They do labs and multiple x-rays. He is writhing in pain. I tried to take his mind off of it by reading books and we talked about emergency precautions like if there was and earthquake or something - just to keep him thinking - that actually helped quite a bit. So then the doctor came up with the DX above, but said they couldn't do anything more and had to send us to the hospital.

So we go to the E.R., they concur that it is a vascular problem and tell me that whatever is going on outside is most likely going on inside, so they need to make sure there is no internal bleeding. CT scan. So then Steve and Britney finally get there - they were in Salt Lake, helpling Steve's dad. So my psyche can relax a little bit and Steve takes over keeping Trenton calm. They have him drink the contrast and an hour later we are going for the CT. Everything looked good. All his organs and his labs say that nothing crucial is effected by this. Basically it is a waiting game. The doc at the E.R. said he could be back to normal with in a few days. As soon as he feels up to it, he can go back to school. Basically what they really worry about are the bowels and the kidneys. If there is any severe abdominal pain that does not go away to get him back in to make sure those things aren't shutting down.

This morning however, I am pleased to announce he has had no abdominal pain and he even walked on his foot for a minute. His spirits are up and this is the best I have seen him in 3 days. So.....I think the steroids are working and he will be back to school as soon as we can fit a shoe on his fat foot.

Thanks for the phone calls, prayers and the love. We have let him know that you all care. He will be fine. Just a really friek thing!

Love ya!