Our HSP Story (part one)

Monday March 22nd - Nathaniel woke up with a fever and sore throat.  I let him stay home from school for three days.  By Thursday he was feeling better but that night Eric noticed what he thought were bug bites around Nathaniel's feet and ankles.

We were headed to the beach for a couple days and began to notice that what we thought were bug bites - were actually spreading up Nathaniel's leg and growing into dark purplish red splotches.  We sent an email to our doctor because I was worried that it may be somekind of secondary infection from the bug bites.

By Saturday morning (the 27th) Nathaniel was having a very hard time walking and was complaining of pain in his feet, ankles knees and hips.  By the end of the day he was crawling across the floor instead of walking.  We decided to cut our trip short and get him back home and straight to the doctors office.

The Pediatrician on staff ran a rapid strep test which can back positive and she recognised the rash right away.  She explained that it was not bug bites at all but HSP.   She sent us home and told us to keep a close watch on him over the next week or so.  Here is what some of his rash looked like: