the molluscum contagiosum support group

Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the molluscum contagiosum support group.  If there's any doubt, I hate this awful nightmare of a virus.  What started out as a few bumps have grown into hundreds on Finn, flaring up his eczema and resulting in a treatment of blistering about forty of the bumps.  The blisters, teetering on the edge of infection, are finally starting to show signs of improvement and healing, after a week off school and round the clock dressing changes.  I THOUGHT we were rounding the bend to health since Finn did make it to school yesterday.  But when I woke him up this morning, I was shocked to see a red, angry, itchy rash all over his entire body.  No school again.

We went to the pediatrician - I needed an advocate to help make sense of the mixed messages we've gotten from the three dermatologists we've seen.  She diagnosed Finn with an "ID Reaction."  Apparently, his immune system is sending out a signal that it's in overdrive trying to fight off the molluscum and heal the forty blisters on his little body.  There's no treatment or idea when it will go away, but it eventually will.  In the meantime, there will be no more treatment on his skin of any kind.  He's on Benadryl to control the itching.  For all the poking and prodding and pain he's had in the last week, this kid is one hell of a trooper.

 

In unrelated news, I knew I heard Jingle Bells in the middle of the night last night.