A Health Update

Some of you who follow our prayer blog (lanserprayers.wordpress.com) know that David hasn’t been feeling the greatest lately. The latest round started a little over a week ago with an ear infection. A day or two after David was diagnosed with an ear infection he came down with a cold. Then a few days ago David woke up a rather nasty looking rash. We took him to the doctor who thought it was probably either a virus or an allergic reaction. Many people have allergies to mango sap, leaves, pollen or skin that can cause a rash, similar to poison ivy. David had played with a mango the day before the rash appeared so we knew that might be a possibility. The doctor said it wasn’t anything to worry about. But the next morning the rash looked different and by noon we noticed that David hadn’t peed in 6 hours and his hands and feet were swelling and was starting to act sick. We called the Doctor again to make sure the changes weren’t something we should be worried about and he said he’d like to see David again to make sure. He also ordered some blood tests. It was a pretty tense time as we waited for the blood tests-David’s rash kept changing and it looked like he had numerous bruises and he was getting more lethargic, I was getting pretty worried it was going to be something serious. However, as we were talking to the doctor about the blood tests (which were normal or close to normal) David suddenly starting acting himself again. The doctor still thinks it’s either a virus or an odd allergic reaction (possibly to mangoes or his medication for his ear infection) so we stopped the antibiotics (his ears looked great) and started him on a couple allergy medications. David already is doing much better, he’s peeing and eating again and acting like the happy, inquisitive little boy we’re use to having around. The rash is quickly diminishing and it is almost completely cleared up. We’re so thankful that David is doing so much better and that all this happened in Jos, where we had access to a helpful, knowledgeable and caring pediatrician.