Day 1*Warning: this is a very long post but I want to make sure I write everything down. After this past week, I have found out that neither Jason nor myself are great at remembering all the ailments our kids have had :) *
On Sunday morning at 3 AM, Matthew woke up soiled. I cleaned him up and put him back to bed. When he got up at 7 AM, I changed him and noticed he had a small rash (figured it was from peeing all over himself that morning). When we came home from church, I changed his diaper and noticed the rash from that morning and then what looked like a small bite. Once again, didn't think anything of it. Our kids always seem to have scratches.
By Sunday night, it looked like a spider bite. About 1 inch in diaper, very red, very hard, and had an indentation like a spider bite (where the spider would have bitten you). I thought it was a bite though so once again, did not flip out.
Day 2We had some friends over on Monday and both of the moms said I should take him in. I got an appointment at 3:45. We took him to see Dr. Scott (our regular doc) and since we see him about once a month I feel I know him pretty well. He looked at Matthew and was just quiet. Matthew had a fever of 100.3 and if the fever was 101 or above, the doctor said he would admit him. He had another MD look at it and both agreed to send him home with 2 antibiotics (augmentin and batrim) and to come back tomorrow. Later that night, Matthew's fever went up to 102 so we freaked out. I called the doctor on call (Dr. Laura) and she told me to use ibuprofen and if it didn't come down in an hour to go to the hospital. His fever was down in an hour and he slept through the night in no pain, and no fever (we checked on him throughout the night).
Day 3Back to the doctor's on Tuesday and this time we saw Dr. Mark. He looked at it, tried to drain the wound (which was now about 2-3 inches in diameter and very very hard/red). Matthew screamed in pain and Dr. Mark said he wanted us to go to the hospital. There were two good choices of hospitals (Riverview, which our group of pediatricians round at, and Clarian, which is a little further away but a great hospital). I always ask the doctors what they would do if this were their child. Dr. Mark thought about it and recommended we go to Clarian since Clarian has a pediatric hospitalist there 24 hours a day (pediatricians are only at Riverview twice a day) and they have a pediatric surgeon/anesthesiologist (at Riverview a general surgeon and general anethesologist would do a surgery). Insert now=mama flipping out. Surgery?!?!
So I called Jason, who was at home with Laney, and said we had to take MJ to Clarian North to be admitted. I went home, packed my bag and a few things for Matthew, and Jason and I were off. Luckily Jen was home on Tuesday. She happily took Laney to play with Jack and got Ella off the bus.
At Clarian, we were directly admitted to the 4th floor (pediatrics) and saw the pediatrician within the first 15 minutes of being there. His name was Dr. Chitty and was actually Dr. Laura's husband (who I talked to Monday night when MJ had a fever). I felt very comfortable :) We had the charge nurse, Shelley, taking care of MJ so I knew we had the best!
We were oriented to the room and within the first hour we had to get an IV placed. Oh Lord! Shelley (the RN) put the numbing creme on 3 different sites and let that set for 30 minutes. In 30 minutes we were off to the treatment room where they put IVs in. They never do treatments in the rooms as they want the kids to feel comfortable in their rooms--great idea!
All 3 areas were numb and we were ready to go. It was awful! Took 6 attempts and 5 nurses to get the IV in (all would go in but then would swell). He did get one in perfectly but Matthew wiggled his way out (he hated the cast that had to go over the IV site). They brought in a family coordinator to help us through this IV process. I was crying hysterically, Jason was almost in tears, and she helped keep MJ distracted (bubbles, books, toys, singing). It was awful!
After the IV was in, the surgeon, Dr. Ladd came in to do his assessment. It was at this point if we unzipped Matthew's sleeper for the doctor to check his belly, Matthew would zip it back up. He wouldn't scream or cry but would just zip it up like, "enough of this already guys." After the examination Dr. Ladd thought we should give the antiobiotics (clindamycin) one night to try and work and then reassess in the AM. I was really impressed with this as surgeons are wired to cut but here he wanted to wait and see.
Day 4
Matthew slept through all of the vital checks and IV checks throughout the night. He woke up at 5 AM, I changed his dirty diaper, and then he went back to bed until 7. I was so happy he slept. During the 5 AM diaper change, the RN was in and said that he was on the schedule for surgery at 8 AM. What? I hadn't heard this and an MD hadn't even been in. I called Jason at 7 AM and said to take the girls to daycare and get here ASAP.
8AM comes, Dr. Chitty comes in and says he will wait for the surgeon's opinion but feels he will probably need surgery. Obviously not at 8AM as it was 8:30 by the time we were done with his assessment. The surgeon came in about 11AM and said surgery was to be at 3 (it was later postponed as we all decided to wait until the pediatric anesthesiologist who couldn't be there until 4:30). I was fine waiting--I only wanted a pediatric surgeon and anesthesiologist.
Since J left in such a hurry this morning, he wasn't able to grab clothes. So around 1pm, we sent him home to get a change of clothes so he could stay tonight. Around 3 o'clock, the surgery staff shows up saying they are taking him to surgery. Surgery was scheduled at 4:30pm so Jason wasn't even back yet. I put Matthew in his crib. He immediately runs over to the side closest to me, reaches his arms out and screams mama. Shrills are more like it. I am crying hysterically but there was Shelley to comfort me! I was so upset Jason wasn't back yet...we had no idea surgery was going to be early!
The surgery staff encouraged me to take him out of his crib (aka baby jail) and carry him down to surgery myself. Thank God! I carried him down and as we pulled into the OR room, Jason came in. Phew! We met the anesthesiologist and then Dr. Ladd, the surgeon, showed up. I was glad it was Dr. Ladd as we were unsure who the exact surgeon was but I was happy with him yesterday and knew he would do a great job. The OR nurses were beyond comforting to me and Jason. They gave Matthew a medicine to help him feel more lucid and not remember anything.
So out to the waiting room we went. I went to the Matthew's room to change my pants (Matthew had actually gotten me dirty right before the OR staff came in so I took him to the OR kinda dirty) and my phone rang about 15 minutes later. It was the OR staff saying the surgeon is done and ready to talk. Yay! Dr. Ladd said the wound had to be drained, and that they cultured it for MRSA (as of now his diagnosis was cellulitis and abscess).
He said to give Matthew time to wake up and the staff to get the breathing tube out and then we could go see him. So in about 20 minutes, he would be in my arms. Well, not this guy! He was up and crying 10 minutes early. I have never been so happy to hear my baby cry.
We rocked him and gave him apple juice to drink in the OR and then were able to take him back to his room. He slept for a few hours and then woke up saying "cracker." He loves crackers! The nurse said we could try anything that we think he would like. We gave him jello, yogurt and crackers. Well, he vomited this up 3 times in the next 2 hours but after that was out of his system, he slept well. But unfortunately Jason didn't sleep so well.
Day 5
The next morning the pediatrician and surgeon came in, said everything looked good and we could go home on antibiotics! Yay! The IV was out and a few hours later, we were on our way.
Matthew left with a small drainage tube in his belly which comes out Tuesday, 3 new sippy cups, bubbles and a new stuffed animal named sneaky :) We have to change his bandage twice a day and give him a warm bath with no soap once a day. He has been doing really well with the changes. He is to take oral clindamycin for 10 days to clear up the infection.
Day 6On Friday night, Dr. Weber (one of the pediatricians at Clarian...she was fabulous at explaining everything) called and said that Matthew did have MRSA. I feared that he did have it! Matthew is now at a higher risk of having this in the future which obviously scares us. If only we could keep him in a bubble!
Since he was feeling better at home, she took him off the major antibiotic (clindamyacin) and put him on a typical antibiotic (bactrim) because he if gets MRSA again we don't want him to be resistant to the clindamyacin (aka, the big guy of medicines). Bactrim either works on people or it doesn't and the body doesn't become resistant to it (bonus!). We already knew it worked on him as the first night it helped take the outer rash down. I was happy with that because the big medicine smelled like dirty gym socks! He hated it!
I am going to have continuously check on his skin and the girls skin because I am obviously freaked out to get this again. It looks like a bug bite and seriously, my kids have those on them all the time! The doctors all recommended keeping nails short and washing hands often---those are the only defense to MRSA. We all carry MRSA but preventing it from going in an open area is what we need to do.
Thank you all for the continued prayers, phone calls, visits at the hospital and texts. I could feel all of the love and prayers we needed to make it through this! We will be forever indebted to Jen and Troy! They gave the girls dinner and put them to bed on Tuesday and Wednesday nights (plus picked them up from day care on Wednesday). They waited for one of us to get home at night and then would head back home. How do you even thank anybody enough for taking care of our children like they would their own?
Right before we were leaving.
Still had to take the IV out of his arm but Matthew was feeling better and saying cheese!
Laney loved to come visit because she got to eat his Teddy Grahams and watch TV (oh, and wear a cool gown).
Playing peek-a-boo with the trash can
Ella joined in
The girls were so happy to have him home they decorated the crib.
Notice the colorful bands at the bottom of the crib (Christmas present from Nana Kay)
His drainage tube.
Although the bandage itches him at times, he doesn't seem to be in any pain.
It's like the new trend in belly rings, right?
All of us back together!
Praise God!
