Iowacookiemom
November 21st 03, 11:58 PM
Last night Henry (11 yo) was studying spelling with my husband. He was having
a harder time than usual with it. Out of nowhere, he began removing most of
his clothing, saying that he was very hot. Then he began vigorously scratching
himself all over his body, saying he itched. He became frantic, almost unable
to communicate, shouting, "Get away from me, it hurts! It hurts!" and ran
upstairs to his room, where he vomited. He continued to say his chest and
stomach hurt and did not want anyone around him. For about 10 minutes, he was
writhing on the floor, scratching himself, half-crying, half-shouting about the
itching and the pain. Repeated questions about where it hurt, how can we help,
etc., seemed to make it worse. He kept saying he wanted to go to the emergency
room but it was clear he was breathing fine and when I managed to get close
enough to take a temperature he did not have a fever (in fact, it was low --
95.2).
Gradually I got through to him to calm down and describe symptoms more
completely: sharp, stabbing pain in the chest, throat and stomach along with
unbearable itching (I get allergy-related itching in my feet and I know how
frantic it makes me, so I can sympathize). He had no visible welts or hives
(then again, I never get them on my feet either).
I gave him benadryl and monitored him closely. He asked for ice water and
almost got going in the frantic mode again, exclaiming that it felt like his
throat was growing hair. At that point I worried about a severe allergic
reaction but he was breathing very well, no swelling in his throat etc that was
visible.
As I got him to calm down I had my arm around him and my palm was on his chest.
Even when he was visibly much calmer, his heart was really racing.
He fell asleep within a half hour and woke up completely fine, went to school
with no incident, and his only comment when I asked him if he was feeling
better was a silly, "good enough for a third popsicle."
I'm left confused and a little unsure whether this is even worth a trip to the
doctor -- The more I think about it, I wonder if it was an anxiety attack.
About a third of the kids in his class were out yesterday with various symptoms
ranging from stomach flu to sore throats and fevers; he never really had
anything that developed in to something I could describe as an illness. Do
these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?
-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 11
a harder time than usual with it. Out of nowhere, he began removing most of
his clothing, saying that he was very hot. Then he began vigorously scratching
himself all over his body, saying he itched. He became frantic, almost unable
to communicate, shouting, "Get away from me, it hurts! It hurts!" and ran
upstairs to his room, where he vomited. He continued to say his chest and
stomach hurt and did not want anyone around him. For about 10 minutes, he was
writhing on the floor, scratching himself, half-crying, half-shouting about the
itching and the pain. Repeated questions about where it hurt, how can we help,
etc., seemed to make it worse. He kept saying he wanted to go to the emergency
room but it was clear he was breathing fine and when I managed to get close
enough to take a temperature he did not have a fever (in fact, it was low --
95.2).
Gradually I got through to him to calm down and describe symptoms more
completely: sharp, stabbing pain in the chest, throat and stomach along with
unbearable itching (I get allergy-related itching in my feet and I know how
frantic it makes me, so I can sympathize). He had no visible welts or hives
(then again, I never get them on my feet either).
I gave him benadryl and monitored him closely. He asked for ice water and
almost got going in the frantic mode again, exclaiming that it felt like his
throat was growing hair. At that point I worried about a severe allergic
reaction but he was breathing very well, no swelling in his throat etc that was
visible.
As I got him to calm down I had my arm around him and my palm was on his chest.
Even when he was visibly much calmer, his heart was really racing.
He fell asleep within a half hour and woke up completely fine, went to school
with no incident, and his only comment when I asked him if he was feeling
better was a silly, "good enough for a third popsicle."
I'm left confused and a little unsure whether this is even worth a trip to the
doctor -- The more I think about it, I wonder if it was an anxiety attack.
About a third of the kids in his class were out yesterday with various symptoms
ranging from stomach flu to sore throats and fevers; he never really had
anything that developed in to something I could describe as an illness. Do
these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?
-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 11