Harry Potter and Henoch-Schönlein Purpura

If I was you I would say, "Harry Potter and WHAT?!"

It's called HSP for short and Devin has it. Don't worry it's not contagious. HSP is the body's random immune response after a virus. It targets small blood vessels causing them to leak fluid. Devin has all the classic symptoms. Tummy pain, rash, joint pain and swelling.

How did we figure it out? We didn't. Our doctor did. Two weeks ago Devin was having tummy pain enough to call and come home from school 3 days in a row so we took him in thinking he had acid reflux or something residual from the tummy bug he had a few weeks previous. Our doctor felt like it was acid reflux so Devin started taking medicine for it. 

Around Sunday or Monday after his appointment I happened to tell Mark, that I saw a random red dot on Devin's thigh and asked him to remind me to check it out. But I figured it was a mosquito bite or something of that nature. About this time Devin started complaining about his legs hurting but I attributed it to growing pains or small pain from falling from the monkey bars. On Wednesday, one week ago, he limped out of the car after school and could hardly walk. Once we got his jeans off we recognized the problem right away and worried he had injured his legs. Both knees were very swollen and tender to the touch. His left ankle was also swollen. 

We deliberated what to do and ultimately took him to the doctor. (He went dressed as Harry Potter!) Once we were seen I was surprised when our doctor started asking about the rash that was slightly faint but distinct on both sides of his legs. That's when we learned Devin wasn't injured but had an unusual sickness or disease thing called HSP. He also informed us that Devin didn't have acid reflux but the tummy pain was also apart of this HSP. They did a urine test because the main concern is how HSP can potentially affect the kidneys. They look for blood and protein. Devin had some protein which other than the rash confirmed the findings. Treatment isn't anything really. Ibuprofen is used to help relieve swelling and joint pain but the sickness usually clears up on its own with the exception of potential adverse affects to the kidneys. So Devin had to go back to the doctor on Friday for a blood pressure check which was great and he had another visit today, Wednesday October, 19th.

During the week between these two doctor's visits the main swelling went down on ibuprofen. The rash of red splotches showed up lots more all over his legs. He had some tummy pain and then occasional joint swelling. An ankle one day, hand the next morning and then a knee that evening. It's been sporadic like that for the last week. Devin would tell me something was hurting and sure enough I would look and it would be swollen. He only missed school the day after the first doctor's visit just to make sure all of that initial swelling went away and he wasn't limping anymore. After that he's been to school everyday. It doesn't seem to bother him much and if it does he tells me and I give him ibuprofen to help with the swelling.

On today's visit they checked his blood pressure and did another urine test (they'll do this for all his HSP checkups) and everything was great and normal! It doesn't mean he is all cleared from HSP yet but it isn't seeming to affect his kidneys so the checkups are now as follows:

He has a checkup next week and if all is normal, he'll have a checkup two weeks after that. If that one is normal he'll have a checkup two weeks after that. If that one is normal we'll go to monthly checkups until it's been 6 months. After 6 months of normal visits then he'll get checked at his usual yearly well visit. If everything is normal through the six months then it will be safe to assume that his kidneys have not been affected by the sickness.

We're not worried about him or his kidneys. Everything should work out just fine. He's been a champ and most of the time isn't bothered by the symptoms at all. We love this boy so much! To end on a funny note...

Whenever Devin's legs hurt he shows me where and I look for swelling. Usually when I touch the spot of swelling he'll say ow, ow! He says it in a painful giggle. Well, next thing we know, Shelby lays down next to me and Devin and holds her leg and says ow, ow!

Lol soo funny! The picture below is that first or second day after I had just checked his legs and she got up there and copied him. It made us all laugh and smile!