HSP

About two weeks ago Erik was having a fever on and off. And then he got a nasty rash on his arms and legs. It didn't seem to bother him at all, but it looked pretty nasty. Two nights after the rash showed up Erik started having a hard time walking. The next morning the poor boy couldn't walk at all. It hurt him too much to put any weight on his feet. So I took him in. He got x-rays, blood tests, and a urine test. There was swelling in his joints in his ankles and slight traces of blood in his urine. The doctor told us that he probably had HSP: Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. Don't ask me to pronounce it- ask Kent. I hesitate to even describe it seeing as how Kent and all of our other medically-knowledgeable friends will read this and think, "She got that totally wrong..." but I'll do my best (honey, feel free to edit this post after reading). HSP is a sort of autoimmune disease that occurs after an infection (which he had about two weeks prior to this). Luckily Erik didn't get some of the more serious symptoms like severe belly pain, and although he did have slight traces of blood in his urine, it was a very small amount and the last urine test that we did was negative. HSP clears up on its own and although it can reoccur it isn't likely.

Two days after he stopped walking his wrists and knees started swelling. The poor little boy. He couldn't move anywhere. He just sat there and watched TV or read books. For almost a week he couldn't walk, which really stunk having two little kids that couldn't walk. Thankfully HSP isn't destructive, so it didn't leave any lasting damage. After it cleared he's back to normal and jumping off of things as usual...

By the way, if I did a horrible job at explaining what HSP is and I made absolutely no sense, click here to read more about it.