Beauty is only skin deep

Its never a good sign to walk into your childs room and to be encountered with a wholly different looking face. But I can imagine what it feels like to wake up and look in the mirror and not recognize yourself (from just one nights sleep). Around 7:30am Abigail was confronted with just such a reality — Sonya walked in to see Abigail not looking like Abigail; her face red, blotched and puffy. Sonya's face confirmed Abigails' fear (how can you hide a reaction when you expect to see one thing — but see something completely different). And thus started an adventurous 24 hours.

Needless to say there were frantic calls to the doctor — fearing another allergic reaction (like with the Ibuprofen). It looked like a rash had spread and was swelling her face. After church we all went to Children's Hospital in Mason (on the doctor's urging), who said it was hives and sent us home with more Benadryl and a request to give Abigail an oatmeal bath. Around 11pm Sonya checked on Abigail (who was in our bed) to find her face swelled to the point that her eyes were closed and her skin was flaking and oozing. I grabbed Abbie and we drove to Children's Hospital Emergency (downtown — about a 40 minute drive). We waited. And waited. And waited. Withing a 5 hour period we saw 4 different nurses and 2 different doctors for a total of about 15 minutes of "face time" with any of them, while Abigail and I just waited and waited and waited and waited.

They gave their diagnosis (severe allergic reaction to poision ivy), gave some steroids and 3 perscriptions and finally "allowed" us to go home, just after 4:30am. Throughout our waiting, Abigail was worried that her face would never look the same. It was hard to watch my beautiful girl barely be able to open her swelled eyes, or make expressions with her swollen, peeling and oozing face. So many people compliment her on her beauty and now she feared the thing that made people "value her" was gone forever. I meagerly attempted to explain to her that mommy and I love her regardless of her face or looks — and that how you look isn't what makes you loved. She told me she knew that Jesus loved her no matter how she looked, but that people wouldn't.

Just in the short moments in the waiting room she noticed the stares and glares, whispering and pointing and in that amount of time she realized that people value you based on your appearance. She buried her face in her teddy bear the entire night - not even letting me look at her ("Daddy, do you still love me?"). So, keep Abigail in your thoughts and prayers -- as she's recovering. Her face is still red and swollen, itchy and painful, and she still hides her face (we had to cover all the mirrors upstairs); hopefully the there will be no scars (and I don't mean those that we can see on her skin).

**UPDATE** Over the evening we had hoped to find Abigail looking more normal, but her face has gotten even more swelled. We're stopping the Prednisone — as it was to help take away the inflammation and it seems to have made it worse (which is a side-affect).