Speckles

My son is completely speckled from head to foot. He ran a low fever Friday and Saturday accompanied by cold symptoms. There was no fever come Sunday but a slight rash had taken its place. He had shots on the 15th so he was in the right timing for a rash from the MMR shot (i think that's one). A rash from this vaccine is very short lived, it comes on and is gone all within 24 hours. I was hoping that this was all that was going on but no such luck. When Levi woke up this morning his rash was worse than last night so I knew we were going to the doctor. I bundled him up and took him with me to drop the girls off at school and then to the doctor. He fell asleep in the van and slept the entire way. When we finally arrive at the doctor's office (approximately 1 hour later) I gasped as I opened the van door and saw his little smiling face looking like a can of red paint exploded in it! No kidding or exaggerating here. It looked like a can of red paint just blew up right in his face. The rash had DEFINITELY gotten worse, to say the least, just in that hour. Plus, he had a little scab on his face where he scratched himself and he had scratched off the scab and it was bleeding. Great. My son's face is more red than white and he's got a big blob of blood right between his eyes. **I'd like to thank everyone in advance for my Mother of the Year Award. Thank You.** Needless to say I couldn't get Levi into the office fast enough. I've never had so many office employees come to greet me before. I think word spread fast that there was a kid who just came through the back entrance looking like a speckled dinosaur egg. The doctor was very pleased with Levi's symptoms and rash. I mean this guy was gushing over the rash! He had a student doctor with him so, apparently, he was talking from a teaching perspective. In short, the diagnosis was roseola. No strep throat, no antibiotic~ just a viral infection that should clear up on it's own in about 5 days. The only piece of medical advice I got for treating this explosive rash was to keep Levi 'cool'. Heat will intensify the rash. After we got home and he napped the major redness went away. He is still speckled but the coloring isn't fire engine red anymore. Click on the picture in this post to see a bigger version and you will be able to see a few of his spots. The picture really doesn't give you a good view of the speckles though. And sorry about the cookie in his mouth. I'm not a big fan of posting pictures of my kids with food in their mouths but it was either this picture with food or one with half of my face appearing to have a double chin. I went with the food ~ you know you would have too. :)