Question: Thursday I brought home a cat (did not bring inside house, back porch only, but my son held it in a box on his lap for about 10 miles in the car). Friday I dropped my son,13yo,off at school and I left for work. I work out of town on the weekends, so that was my last contact with him. Saturday morning I woke up with 7 very itchy spots on my foot and wrist. My husband called shortly after to tell me our son woke up with spots all over him. Urgent care doctor looked and asked if there were any new pets at home. He diagnosed it as Cat Mites and told us to buy a 1% Permethrin cream OTC, which we did, coated him in it head to toe and left it on for 12 hours. After he was covered in cream, the bumps began to multiply rapidly. He was then taken to the ER. Doctor in ER said it was not cat mites but it was Erythema Multiforme. No treatement, just wait it out. The next day, the majority of the bumps were gone but he was then covered in what I believe are hives. They are large and plaque like, on his arms, chest, waistline, knees, hairline and behind his ears. Benadryl wasn't helping at all. Urgent care doc, after spending quite some time researching and coming back to reexamine, tentatively called them hives even though the distribution pattern was not as consistent as he believed they should be and prescribed prednisone. The "hives" began fading within 2 hours of taking this and he had very few spots left after about 6 hours. I still have the 7 spots I started with. They have not grown or changed. He went to bed feeling almost normal, woke up this morning with a whole new set of what appears to be bumps and hives combined. Took steroids and Benadryl, now they are starting to fade again. Does this sound like EM? How long should I expect this cycle to last? What do I do if it isn't gone when he finishes the steroids in 11 days? This is all very confusing. I don't understand how we both woke up with the same exact spots that looked like bites or mites, but were in two different cities at the time, and now he has EM and I just have a few itchy bites.