Bugs BITE!!!

So 2 weeks ago on Saturday morning, we set off for Yellowstone with Mike's brother, his partner Eddie, & Eddie's nephew Tommy!! We had planned to drive the Beartooth Pass, enter Yellowstone at Cooke City, spend the day in Yellowstone, exit at Gardiner and spend the night in Livingston. Well about part way up the pass, I noticed that Karlee's ankle was a little swollen and figured she had a bug bite and that we were repeating the reactions that she had last year!! Little did I know that she was repeating the reaction and that it was going to be even worse!! Within a couple hours more, it was really swollen and had started to blister with those blisters popping, draining and reblistering (it was so bad that one time I was holding Karlee while stopped to look at a waterfall & a lady started freaking out saying, "OMG...have you seen her ankle??)!! I had no children's benedryl with me and we were in the middle of Yellowstone!! We made it to Old Faithful and I was able to get some adult benedryl and gave her half a tablet till we could get to Livingston. We arrived back in Livingston late that night and by that point her, foot, ankle and leg up to her knee was three times the size of her other leg (poor kid looked like she was 9 months pregnant) so we took her to the ER! They said she had and infected bug bit and gave us an antibiotic and some children's benedryl. Well throughout the next day, the bite proceeded to keep swelling, keep blistering (getting new blisters) and turn bright red...it was pretty scary as then I was afraid she had a poisonous spider bite. Well, (trying to shorten the very long story) by about Thursday, it had started to look lots better and we only had a few open spots where the blisters had been and a small tinge of purple left!! The pictures below are from the bite and the subsequent days following!!

So we thought we were good to go and the infection was clearing up!! On Friday of last week, Karlee and I headed to Baker for our annual Knipp Family get together and to celebrate my Grandpa Everett's 80th birthday!! We spent the entire day out at my Aunt Karen's house with family on Saturday. That night, I noticed that the inside of Karlee's foot was swollen and so I thought that even though she still had one more day of the antibiotic left that the infection must not be getting better (wow..was I wrong). Karlee had a horrible time sleeping that night as she was itching all night and by morning, she was a wreck from the mosquito bites! The inside of her foot was swollen again cause she got a new bite and was reacting to that along with a bite between her eyes that was welted and 3 bites on her arm that was causing her wrist to swell. Long story short, by the time I got back to Billings with her on Sunday night, her eyes were almost swollen shut, her foot was soo swollen she couldn't wear her shoes and her little wrist was swollen!! We took her to the ER here and they gave us a steroid for the swelling and gave us another week of antibiotics. These pictures are the progression of those bites!!


After watching these bites, I decided to get her into her pediatrician cause it is SOOOO miserable for her when she gets these mosquito bites! Her pediatrician only works Wed, Thurs, & Fri and so she hadn't seen her when she had a horrible bite. I printed off all the pictures of her last 2 bites and also the pictures from her reactions last year (3 rounds of antibiotics to heal bites last year) to show that the reactions were getting worse and that we needed to figure something out. She looked at Karlee and the pictures and determined that Karlee is severely allergic to mosquitos. She said that she has only had 3 patients like that in all her years of practicing. She prescribed an EPI pen for us to carry, Zyrtec to give her everyday and then a steroid to use if she gets a bite that swells badly. We are going to try the Zyrtec for now and see how things go and how her reactions to the bites are. If they don't improve, then I will take her to an Allergist and see what else we can do.

I feel soooooo bad as you can't KEEP a kid away from mosquitos cause you can't lock them in the house all summer. I have tried every bug spray out there with her and she still gets bit and bit lots!! I hope the Zyrtec works and if not, I am scared to see what her reactions will progress to!!