It’s not MRSA

The results came back on Thursday and it’s not MRSA.  We repacked it and when we did there was no more pus so that’s a very good sign the infection is clearing.  His tummy’s not bright red anymore and he’s being a normal, very happy toddler.  In fact yesterday he ran around dancing all over the house.  He hates taking his meds though.

Mixed bag.

The news on Kyle is a mixed bag.  It is a Staph infection and yesterday it needed to be drained and packed.  He’s now on some serious antibiotics.  It’s serious enough I’m home from work today to watch him but not, yet, seriously enough that he’s in hospital.  That could change quickly.

This morning though, when I changed his bandage, his packing came out.  I’ll be calling the doctors offiice when they open.  They are still finishing up the lab work on the sample so we don’t know what kind of Staph infection it is but they are testing to be 100% sure it’s not MRSA.

It was a friggin’ pimple.

Two weeks ago I noticed Kyle had a small pimple, as baby sometimes get, on his tummy right where his diaper hits it.  I kept an eye on it but didn’t really do anything but leave it to do it’s thing.

Well last night he screamed a good portion of the night.  This morning Jason reported that it was red and somewhat hard.  I told him to put triple antibiotic cream on it, give him some baby Tylenol and watch it.  I called my mom to warn her before he got there and told her what we were doing and keep an eye on it.  I then called my doctor’s office and her nurse called me back.  She said from what it was at that time we were doing the right thing but if it got worse call ASAP.

Well at 1:30 my mom called and Kyle was fussing and not bending.  I asked her to look at his side.  The first words out of her mouth were for me to get home.  As I flew down the street I called my doctor’s office and asked if I should take him to Urgent Care or the ER.  Mary, bless her, told me that our doctor had a 2:40, could we make it?  Hell yes I could.

When we got there he was a bit fussy, and running a slight fever.  Mary left the room and Dr. Suk came in.  As soon as she saw it she walked back out told Mary to come back in and told me that “Dana, this is bad.”  This is Dr. Sukowaty for “Ok, this is somewhat of an emergency and we need to really get on our toes here”   As they came and went bringing things in I leaned in and started talking to my baby boy.  I told him what was going to happen was going to hurt a lot and mommy was sorry but she promised it would help him feel better even if it didn’t right away.  Mary held his little arms and I held his little legs.  Dr. Suk asked if I was ok with that and it’s where I had to be.

He cried his heart out as she drained the abscess.  His eyes locked on me asking me why I was helping them do this to him.  He tried very hard to get away, but almost as soon as the doctor began to drain the pus and blood from the swollen lump of his tummy you could see it getting better.

When we got home he sat in my lap.  If anyone else tried to hold him for a moment he melted down.  If I tried to put him on the floor and hold his hand he melted down.  He was exhausted, in pain and confused and damnit if sitting on mommy’s lap watching NCIS didn’t make him feel safe.  He had a dinner of toast, a lollypop the doctor and nurse begged me to give him (not that it took much. I would have asked had they not insisted), chocolate kisses and a chocolate Easter bunny.  Hell if he’d wanted a steak I would have found a way to get it to him.

Is he ok?  Well, yes and no.  They gave him two antibiotic shots and the abscess is open to drain, and it is.  We are, however, under orders to watch  him and should his fever spike, or  the abscess get worse or pus begins to drain again we are to go to the ER, period.  I was also told that under no circumstances would he be allowed to come home tonight unless we came back tomorrow.  And I was also told if it wasn’t getting better he would be admitted for IV antibiotics.

So, yes it seems to be doing better and yes he is now sleeping soundly and yes it looks better, but better is relative here. It’s still swollen and red and he is still in pain.  All day tomorrow I’m going to worry and beat myself up because I have to work a 10 hour day so I can get my 40 in for my liver MRI on Friday.  I also have to go in on Saturday to make up the 4 hours I lost today.  I’ll wonder if I’m placing my job over my son, if I shouldn’t just stay home and watch him and be damned with the consequences.  But I know that my mother will be like a hawk.  She and my father were here tonight to rescue their own child with dinner and help.  She knows what she’s watching for and she knows that she made the right call to tell me to get home.  Had we waited he may well have been admitted.

Right now I wonder, am I putting my job ahead of my son?  But it’s because of him that I need to work.  It’s not as if I’m dropping him off at day care and ignoring what’s going on.  I also realize that I can’t just cancel Friday for me because there is a 1 in a million chance something really is wrong with my liver and if I don’t address this it could leave him without a mother.

And so tomorrow, so long as he’s not worse, I will get up and worry for 10 hours about him.  Want to cuddle and hold him and tell him his mommy loves him.  I’ll race home to turn around and take him back to the doctor and pray she’ll like what she sees so I don’t have a repeat of the 48 hours I stayed with him in Children’s.

All of this started from a small pimple.  Our doctor was, as usual, calm and direct.  She told me that these types of things come on quick and that I’d made the right call in the morning and the right call to bring him in.  She reassured me I wasn’t a horrible mother for not realizing sooner that this was as bad as it was.  I sent Jason a picture of his tummy right after his bath tonight, even with it less swollen and red he said it wasn’t that bad when he’d dressed him and sent him to my mom’s.  An hour and a half was all it took for a pimple to turn into something that could have been far more serious than it already is.

Happy Birthday!

First, Happy Birthday Jennie!  30 really isn’t so bad.

Today I caught up with some old friends, and I’m talking High School Old, on Facebook.  It was sorta nice.  It’s Sunday so Kyle and Jason are with Grammie.  Tonight I’m heading over to celebrate Jennie’s and my own birthday (it’s Thursday BTW).

The count down to the liver MRI is on.  That week is gonna suck because to make 40 hours that week I’ll have to work 10 hour days rolling up to it.  That means I’ll get home in enough time to put Kyle to bed.  I hate that.  Many mornings he’s just waking up as I leave and if I’m working late like that to make up hours I don’t see him at all.

Anyway this was just a public shout out to my sister in law, who still rocks.

And now….

Some cute things

Took the dive

I took the dive and can now be found on Twitter.  I have no idea how often I’ll actually be using it as I’ve gone non geek and don’t spend much time here in front of the computer.  That’s a great deal in part because once again the WoW sub has run out and I’ve run through a lot of games already and have no new ones to fill the gaps.

I’m also not writing though I’ve got a story floating around in my brain.  I know the characters and the first hook but can’t finish with the ending or how I’ll get there.  I also am not sure how to write in a subtle love story without it being romance as that’s not what the story is about to me.  Of course I could work on it more, write it down, story tree it and flesh it out but that is work people!

Today with Kyle was one of those sublime days.  You know the ones where he wants his mommy but not so much I can’t go pee without him melting down.  He took naps well, was giggly and happy, snacked and entertained everyone at Aldi.  He guzzled 3 glasses of milk and 3 of water.  He was all smiles and we’d play cars for a bit then he’d wander off and do his own thing while I did mine.  Then in his simple way of telling me that he wanted me again he’d bring me one of his cars and hand it to me so I could make it pop out into a dinosaur.  Then he’d smile and laugh.

I do have worry points though.  He doesn’t mimic as much as other babies his age, he hasn’t gotten waving bye bye down and hardly does it, still doesn’t really do kisses unless it’s random and hasn’t done one hug.  He also doesn’t point to things he wants, though he does reach for them, and does not nod yes or no.  I suppose I’m being overly worried but while he does do babbling and social interaction it seems to me like he doesn’t care much for it unless it’s on his terms.  Though I could chalk that up to his being 1 and in his world everything should be on his terms.

Well he lived up to his promise, sorta, kinda, well not really.

Gov. Doyle vowed not to raise taxes when he ran for Governor of WI.  He said it over and over, he wasn’t going to raise taxes.  And even with the state running in the red thanks to our generous Welfare, Medicaid and other social services he’s not.  Well not my income tax, which is the 13th highest in the nation.

He is however raising all the other taxes he can.  From the cigarette tax, which is now a $1.77 a pack, to looking at the gas tax, which is the 5th highest in the nation coming in only behind CT, NY, IL, MI and WA.  We’re tied BTW with FL, HI, and NV.  If his proposed tax hike goes through we’ll be the 3rd highest in the nation.  Lucky us hey?

It’s called a ’sin’ tax.  The only reason they he won’t seriously consider raising the liquor tax is because he knows the masses would riot and call for impeachment.  And I’m not trying to be cute, they honestly would.  We in WI take our booze seriously.  Far more than our cheese or cranberries.  Liquor is right up there with how we feel about the Packers.

I’m expecting to hear soon about taxes going up on fast food, pre-packaged food and other ‘convince’ items.  These things are bad for us you see, so it’s ok to hike up the fees to use them.

Except, of course, when you start breaking it down these taxes will hurt those already living in poverty or teetering on the edge of living below the poverty line.  For them the difference between driving their cars legally came down to the $10 hike in registration fees that our government already put out there.  And there are whispers that we could see another hike in those fees again soon.

And let’s not forget the new taxes he’s got on businesses.  The more the doctor who owns the clinics where I work is taxed the less likely I am to get a raise, more PTO or other perks.  Or he is to hire someone else to help me with the backlog of work.  Then again maybe I shouldn’t worry about that because if Universal Health Care goes through I may not have a job.  Well, maybe not, if how the current government run health care is run the way Universal care would I’m safe.  We can’t get a bill paid correctly on about 1/3 of all claims we bill without someone intervening.

Now is not a time to tax.  If those who run our goverment really want to stimulate the economey they’ll try to get more money in the hands of people so those people can spend that money.  I don’t see that happening though.  Just like the Federal goverment the Wisconsin state goverment is controlled by the Democrates who feel they know what’s best for me and that I should just trust that they’ll take care of me.