Heres what happened...Thursday night, DH and i noticed a little red spot on the back of Addi's thigh. It was smaller than the eraser of a pencil. By Friday morning, it was the size of a quarter. By the time I left for work at 3pm Friday, it was the size of a half dollar. I called Kaiser and left a message for her pediatrician (she never did call back). I am at work when my boss comes and tells me I have a phone call (this is RARE...Kev NEVER calls my work unless I have forgotten my cell phone and he needs something urgently.) So I answer the phone and he asks me where the thermometer is because Addi felt hot to him, and the thing on her leg was much bigger, about the size of a coke can's rim. He takes her temp and it was 102*. He then tells me that the night before, he tried to "pop" it. I knew at that time that this wasn't going to be good.
I called the advice nurse and she set up a telephone appointment for ten minutes later. I told my boss and she said it was ok to take the appointment and come back a few minutes late from my break. So the Dr. calls back and I three way call my DH. We relay the symptoms and the Dr. told us that she needed to be admitted and have the area drained and get some IV antibiotics. He then proceeds to tell me that the hospital here doesn't have a pediatric wing so we need to go to Walnut Creek (30 mins away) to the hospital there.By the time we got to the ER there it was around 8pm. They got us back really quickly and took her vitals. Her BP was low, and her fever was up and was very lethargic and the cellulitis on the back of her leg was now the size of a softball/grapefruit. They had to take blood cultures and start an IV. The first spot they tried on the back of her right hand. They were able to get the cultures from there, but when they went to put the IV in, the vein blew. So they got one in at her right elbow. Then the dr. on call came in and did an U/S to see if there was any fluid yet in the abcess and there wasn't. It was 1:00am by the time we got upstairs to our room.
They started her on Clindamycin, but after two days, the cellulitis was still s
preading, and she was still spiking fevers off and on. She had already occluded one IV and they had to switch her IV to her left hand. They decided to up her to Vancomycin. The drawback to that was that it was only available in IV form, so if that's all the bacteria was susceptible to we'd be there a full ten days. After just twenty four hours on the Vanco, the cellulitis had pretty much disappeared. We did multiple warm compresses on the abcess to try to draw the fluid up to the surface. On Monday morning, the surgeons came in and said they were going to put her under and clean it out in the afternoon. About twenty minutes after they left the room, I looked down at my leg and thought Addi had pooped on me as there was a glob of yellowish brown goop on my pants. Instead, I found that her abcess had popped on its own and drained all over my leg. GROSS. And (puke) did it smell. The nurse came in and used sterile guaze and "mashed" more stuff out and took a culture.
Tuesday morning the surgeon came in and said it didn't look like they were going
to need to do anything else as it was still draining on its own and the cellulitis was gone now, but they wanted the ped to "mash" it again that afternoon to make sure it was all cleaned out. That afternoon the culture came back that it was growing Staph, but they didn't have the type or the sensitivities yet. At about 4pm they decided they were going to mash it and came into give her some morphine. As the nurse was pushing the morphine, she began having an allergic reaction and her hand swelled up, her IV occluded again and her hand got a wicked red rash with bumps all over it.
They took out that IV, and put another one BACK in her right elbow in a different vein, and we decided after all that torture to hold off on expressing anything that day. Wednesday they came in, and gave her some staydol in her IV and went to mash it more, but it didn't drain. It had covered over. The surgeon came in to reassess and said it looked ok and that we didn't need to press the issue. I had to leave Wednesday afternoon and take Brie to some pre op appointments in Stockton (1hr30mins from hosp.). Kev called while I was gone and said the sensitivities came back and that it was indeed MRSA and that it was susceptible to Septra, that they wanted to do two more rounds of the Vanco for a full five days worth, but that on Thursday if the ID doc gave us the ok, we could go home.
Thursday morning at 8am the nurse came in and said we were going to be freed! YAY!!! For six days, my little bean saw nothing but the same four walls of a 12x12 room with no contact and very few toys. Anyone who came to visit had to gown up, glove up, and mask up as we were in contact isolation, so it was a lonely week. She's doing better now and is on ten more days of the Septra and Bactroban ointment on her hand because her reaction turned to open sores after the blisters popped.
Lets hope this doesn't happen again!
