On the mend...

after 48 hours and benadryl every 4 hours around the clock (yes, I set my alarm and got up to dose him in the middle of the night - every 4 hours on the nose) the swelling is finally starting to go down. His foot looks so much better than it did just 12 hours ago. His toe isn't purple anymore and his skin doesn't look like it's going to just burst and split everywhere. Can you believe this? From fire ant bites. Really?! Not a whole nest or anything, just 5 or 6. He's got 3 bites on his big toe, two bites between his third and fourth toes, one on the arch of his foot, and one up by his ankle. I'm just so amazed. It's hard for me to believe that he reacts this way. I've got a half dozen bites on my foot too and it's nothing more than an annoying itch. I guess it's no different than someone being allergic to bee stings. For most of us it's just annoying and painful for a little bit, for some it can be life threatening. This is certainly not life threatening, it's never been more than an extreme localized reaction but still. Wow.
And how miserable for me and him to battle over shoes all the time now! I insist he have them on, he yells and screams because he doesn't want them on. *sigh* what a bummer.

I should have known better.

Morgan has reacted badly before, clearly this is now something that has to be watched. This is also why CJ rides my butt about the kids playing outside in flip flops and not "real" shoes. But come on, they were playing on the slip n slide and in the baby pools. You really can't make them do that in tennis shoes or boots. And all the rest of the kids were outside in no shoes or flip flops. Clearly Morgan is not 'the other kids'. The second picture is kind of blurry and doesn't come close to doing it justice but I'm sure you get the picture.
This is 12 hours post (5-6) ant bites.
This is 36 hrs post ant bites: I'm not sure you can clearly see where his skin split on the side of his big toe from the swelling, all the blisters he has where the bites are, and all the nasty oozing gunk. I'm pretty sure he's going to loose almost all skin from his big toe because it is just one giant blister.
Ask me what kind of piece o' crap mom I feel like.