Sweet syndrome

Have you heard of it? Neither have we until now. Let’s back track so you can see the whole picture. About a month and a half ago my parents came to watch Alayna while Brad and I played VB. My dad said he wasn’t feeling well and had red bumps similar to acne on his face which started on his scalp. Later in the evening he felt like he was losing vision in his one eye plus he had other symptoms (fever, chills, aches, fatigue, etc). My mom took him up to Urgent Care and they diagnosed that it was an allergic reaction to a hat that he wore when he went running. For those of you that don’t know, my dad runs 3 times a week about 6 miles each time. I didn’t buy that diagnosis but whatever. Well it didn’t get better so my dad went to his regular doctor who had NO idea what it was. He even brought in another doctor who was also stumped. I don’t know about you but I would have been FURIOUS if I had two doctors looking at me and not having a freakin clue! They took a swab of pus from the bumps to culture and then put him on a series of different meds not to mention 9 Alleve a day. Not cool in my book. Still no improvement and the culture came back with nothing. As time went by my dad said he felt sick all of the time and his energy level was way low to the point he was taking naps and not running. This worried me greatly as I could only think of one thing……the dreaded C word. I talked to several people and looked on line repeatedly but couldn’t find anything that exactly matched all of his symptoms. The odd thing about the pimples/red patches is that they didn’t itch but his skin was sore then got to the point where his face and hands were swollen. At this point, I was getting extremely irritated because I was worried this could shut down organs or perhaps cause infection. My dad then went to a dermatologist who said the same thing, “I don’t know” but he did take a piece of skin to send to the U of MN and also drew blood (finally!). The downside to that was he had to wait 10 days until he got results. Meanwhile he had scheduled a physical and his doctor said the blood work came back clean and free….odd…. so they had to wait for skin results. Finally the day came and the dermatologist still wasn’t sure but after some persuasion he made some calls and came back in saying that he was about 90% sure it was “Sweet syndrome also known as acute febrile neuthrophilic dermatosis. This is a skin condition marked by fever and painful skin lesions that appear mainly on your face, neck, back and arms. The exact cause of Sweet syndrome often isn't known. In some people, it's triggered by an infection, illness or certain medications”. (Mayo Clinic) Here is a link if you want to learn more: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sweets-syndrome/DS00752
So far the prednisone is working slowly and he feels somewhat better so hopefully it clears up. If not, he has an appointment with some specialist in the cities. Whew! We were so relieved to hear that they finally figured it out (possibly) and glad he is feeling better. Sweet syndrome…….weird!