Day 292: Antihistamines!

Posted on | June 19, 2008 |

Walgreens — $34.72

Tuesday night The Son played right and left field during a 8pm baseball game.  Something out in the grass made a real meal out of The Son — particularly his ankles.  Yesterday they itched; today he was in agony.  Poor kid has bite after inflamed bite on both legs.  And they’re huge bites.  Obviously he’s having an allergic reaction to whatever poison those bugs pumped into him.

Every 3 or 4 hours today I’ve nursed his bites with a regimen of ice, rubbing alcohol, and then a generous dollop of StingStop.  But I knew that wouldn’t get him through the night so after dinner I ran out for some serious supplies.  I don’t like giving my kids medicine.  I especially don’t like giving them things that will make them drowsy or will affect their moods.  The Son has only had Benadryl one other time in his life — a few years ago he had a reaction to an antibiotic (something else I rarely give to the kids) and he broke out all over with terrible hives.

But desperate times call for desperate measures and if you could see these poor ankles, you’d know these are desperate times.  With the help of the pharmacist I bought three different remedies:

• Children’s Benadryl — $6.49  (The Son at age 13, 5′10″ tall, and weighing 125 lbs definitely could be given the adult Benadryl except that he cannot swallow pills.  This will be administered tonight at bedtime and will serve both to make him drowsy and relieve the itching.)
• Claritin Reditabs — $19.99/40 tablets (I can’t give him the Benadryl and the Claritin at the same time but the Claritin takes longer to take effect and therefore was less ideal than the Benadryl for getting through the night tonight.  I’ll give him his first Claritin tablet tomorrow morning and hopefully it will provide the necessary relief through the day tomorrow without making him drowsy.)
• Benadryl Gel — $5.79  (This will be applied topically as needed tonight and tomorrow and beyond.  I probably didn’t need to make this purchase and could have just stuck with the StingStop but I figured as long as I was breaking so many self-imposed rules about medicating my children, I might as well break them all.)

On the advice of the pharmasist, I did not get the tube of Cortizone cream.  He said that it suppresses the immune system and could increase the risk of infection due to scratching.  Although he’s doing his level best not to scratch the bites, since The Son is still somewhat lax in his hygiene habits I took the pharmacists advice and went with the Benadryl gel instead.

Related Posts for Further Reading

• Day 235: Dinner & The Theater, etc
• Day 205: Clothes, Books, Meds, & Milk
• $$: Coyote Sighting Edition
• $$: More Clothes, More Food, and Some Returns
• $$: Chocolate Milk, Chocolate Candy & Snow Pants, etc.
• $$: Co-Pay, Fees, & Groceries

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