That’s what Kayley’s brown spots are called. They are collections of white blood cells. He scratched several of them and they puffed up and turned a bit white. He said they swell and release histamine. You can treat them with oral antihistamines (like Benadryl) but he prefers cortisone ointment and prescribed some. The good thing is they eventually go away. He wants to see her again in 3-4 weeks.
He’s gotta be right too, because Kayley’s nose ran like crazy for 2 hours after he scratched the spots!
Edited to add: [Evening now] Yeesh. She has been whiny all day. We wonder if the spots itch her now but she doesn’t pull at her skin anywhere. Her nose started running again and she threw up too. I guess the histamine in her system makes her feel sick? He said you can have these internally too and severe cases would give a person massive diarrhea… I imagine activating some of hers could cause tummy upset and vomiting. She started breathing fast too.
He had told us the appropriate dose of Benadryl to give her is 3/4 teaspoon. That seemed high to us so we gave her 1/2 t. She’s just now drifting off to sleep. We still need to pick up her rx ointment but I don’t want to mix the 2 drugs so I’ll start it tomorrow.
Quote from a website about this condition-
“Solitary mastocytomas are collections of mast cells presenting with a single or multiple (usually five or fewer individual) orange- to red-brown plaques or nodules ranging from 0.5 cm to 3.5 cm in diameter. They typically appear within three months after birth. They may develop a “peau d’orange,” or an orange peel-like texture. The clue to diagnosis is the Darier’s sign, which is development of a wheal and flare following firm stroking of a lesion with dull edge of a pen or fingernail. The stroking leads to mast cell degranulation and histamine release. The lesion typically develops a raised, white wheal in the center and then a surrounding bright red flare within several minutes. The lesion may subsequently blister in children in the first year of life but does not lead to permanent scarring. Such lesions are often mistaken for bullous impetigo.
If there is enough histamine release, some patients may develop systemic symptoms including nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, flushing, pruritus, hypotension and rarely, respiratory symptoms of bronchospasm. Rarely, enough histamine is released to cause anaphylaxis and death. Treatment of choice is administration of oral antihistamines such as diphenhydramine. Epinephrine can be given in acute situations. Lesions typically involute over eight to 10 years.”