Update: They are discharging him today! He still has some rash, but they are sending him home with meds and he will get rechecked in a few days. How you go from almost dead to "I need to get home so I can get some estimates done" is beyond me. But, I am beyond happy to have him coming home!

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Hi all from a very tired mama,

I'll start out with the praise that Pat is improving. Fever is gone, heart rate is down, rash seems to be going away. He still needs the Lord's healing hand, but I am so thankful that he seems to be on his way.

I feel overwhelmingly loved and blessed to have a family in Christ that so abundantly displays His love through prayers and acts of kindness.

For those of you who haven't heard the whole story, here is a run down:

Pat has been having a lot of headaches. We thought they were sinus related. CT scan didn't really show much, so the ENT though there might be an infection hiding out somewhere in his sinuses and prescribed a low dose, long term antibiotic. We obviously had no idea he was allergic to this kind of antibiotic, and he has never had any drug allergies before, so we thought nothing of it.

Very soon after he started taking it (about a week ago) he started complaining that he didn't feel good, nothing real specific, just kind of blah. We decided he was coming down with a cold or something. It only very briefly crossed our minds that it could be the antibiotics because his skin was feeling sensitive, but that seemed like it could be part of him coming down with a bug. He continued with the meds.

This continued for a couple of days until he spiked a fever on Friday night. We were actually grateful, as it seemed he was finally sick and could get over the "I'm starting to get sick" part of getting sick. We figured he'd be fine the next day.

He wasn't. But, because he is Super Daddo, he still took the girls on the Father Daughter campout, feeling awful the whole time, but fully expecting to feel better soon. They came home Sunday morning, and he was very ill (fever, joint pain, chills, muscle aches, etc.). We still thought it was the flu.

Around noon I noticed he had a little rash near his armpit, and we both figured it was heat rash from the fever. It very quickly spread to his chest and stomach and started itching. It was then that my endless hours of watching House, M.D. re-runs finally came to good use, and I knew it had to be an allergic reaction and not the flu (duh!). We called his doc, who said to stop taking the meds immediately and go to the ER if the rash got any worse. He seemed to be Ok (feeling cruddy, but not any worse) Sunday night. By early Monday morning, the rash had spread all over, and he had a very high fever. He went to the ER, they ran a bunch of tests, and decided to admit him for treatment. He saw an infectious disease specialist (because they have a lot of experience with drug reactions) who told us that this was a severe reaction and that his liver was not handling it well at all. This was a big concern because they didn't want to give him too much medicine and tax his liver even more. He had a 103 fever and his heart rate was very high.

They started him on IV fluids, antihistamine, steroids, and something else I can't remember right now. They gave him ice packs and eventually some tylenol to bring down his very high fever.

As it turns out, his flu-like symptoms over the preceding days were all part of the escalating allergic reaction, culminating in said scary looking rash.

He is hoping to be allowed to come home tomorrow, but only time will tell.

The Lord has been, and continues to be, faithful to bring us through this trial (with only a few major meltdowns and crises of faith on my part ) . I will keep ya'll updated.

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My husband is in the hospital. He has had a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics he has been taking for a week. We thought it was the flu until he broke out in a horrible rash. He now has a fever and is in a lot of pain. If you pray, please keep us in your prayers.

I trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ, to keep us in His loving arms during this time. But, I am still scared. I've been with my husband more of my life than not. I pray for his complete healing so he can come home and be our Daddo.