Saturday, October 1, 2011

James' 2nd Hospital Stay...

Long Post Warning.....
We have had a stressful week, to say the least!  Two weeks ago, Sept 15, I noticed a little bug bite on James' stomach.  It was no bigger than a mosquito bite, and I really didn't pay it much attention.  The next day, Friday, James threw up 5 times out of the blue.  He was feeling great all day, but evening came and he started running a fever and was quite sick.  Saturday he felt much better but started coughing, sneezing, runny nose, and his bug bite was looking a little red and infected.  We decided to take him in to the doctor that Monday. 

She saw the bite, gave us antibiotics, and also diagnosed viral pneumonia after seeing a chest x-ray.  Viral is way less drastic than bacterial, so it really wasn't a big deal.  He was acting happy so we really weren't too concerned.  Well, a few days pass and his cough gets much better along with his bug bite, the red circle around the bite basically disappeared. 

Well, Saturday morning we noticed a little read streak coming from the bite area, but we thought maybe he just was pressing up on the table and it was just a little irritated.  Well, the next time we looked at it, it had turned into a large red circle and become tender to the touch and hard.  We were advised to just watch it overnight and if it got worse then we should take him back in. 

We took him to the ER at the closest hospital Sunday morning.  (Military insurance covers ER visits way easier than Urgent Care centers, so that's where we have to go on the weekends)  Let me just say, we wish we would've driven the extra 25 minutes to take him to the Army hospital ER....we did not have a good experience...but hindsight is always 20/20.   We should've taken cues from the dirty waiting room and the bloody rag on the floor of the triage room...but no, we soldiered on.  James was seen fairly quickly and they knew right away that it needed to be drained and cleaned out.  Here's where it got ugly...and I didn't realize how bad it actually was until a few days later....

They brought in two nurses along with Steven and I, and we held James down while the doc gave him a shot of Lidocane to numb the area.  He then pierced the skin and squeezed out the pus and goo that was in there....there was a lot.  Poor James was a wreck, screaming and kicking, it was not pleasant.  Poor little man.  We felt terrible, but we thought he was mostly scared because Lidocaine really does numb the area quite well.  Come to find out....the acid levels in the abscess basically cancel out the Lidocaine, so little James was getting squeezed and punctured without any pain relief.  We are still so upset...we'll never be going back to St. Joseph's ER! 

Anyway, we got out of there and went home, scheduled our follow up appointment with our family doctor for Tuesday and got James on stronger antibiotics.  It really didn't get much better, and by Tuesday the abscess was hard and red again.  Our family doctor took one look at it, picked up her phone, called the general surgery department at our Army hospital, and got James an emergency surgery scheduled for that afternoon!  She couldn't believe that they didn't give James any more anesthetic than Lidocaine, and thought that he needed to be put under general anesthetic for a procedure like that!  ugh.  we felt and still do feel like bad parents for putting our little guy through such a dramatic procedure at the ER.  You think that the doctors know best and you trust them...that's why you go!  I didn't have a clue that acid cancels out the effectiveness of Lidocaine....poor James. 

So, we got him checked in, met with the surgeon, and they took good care of him.  Thankfully Steven was able to be there too.  They made a small incision in the abscess, drained the infection, cleaned it, then packed it with this cool gel stuff that liquefies after a few days...no stitches required.  The whole procedure lasted just 15 minutes, and James came out of anesthetic pretty well.  It's so strange to see your kid drugged up though, his eyes were all crazy and rolling around.  Very weird.  We stayed the night in the hospital so he could get strong antibiotics through his IV, and they sent us home Wednesday afternoon.  Much much much better experience!  Cleaner, nicer, more attentive, less pain and less drama.  Love WINN Army Hospital. 

Sigh....it's all over.  They know it was a staph infection and possibly MRSA, but there's no way to know how he got it.  Could be from the wal-mart shopping cart, another little kid at day-care, or anything.  We just don't know and frankly, it doesn't matter.  He's doing much better and he's healing up quite well.  He's still a little traumatized from it all, so he doesn't like to have his bandage changed.   We know it's not hurting him anymore though because when we get a little sneaky and touch that area, he has no reaction at all.  Thank God!  We have a follow up appointment with our surgeon on Monday afternoon, so we'll see what he thinks! 

long post.  sorry.  :)
Pictures:  This is his abscess before we took him to the ER on Sunday.  We circled the infection with pen to see if it grew overnight...it did.
 James sleeping after his surgery.  The little dinosaur bandage on his hand was to cover his IV...he HATED it!  :)

3 comments:

Regan Huneycutt said...

I am SO sorry for the horrible hospital experience, but very glad to know James is ok!

Schmit Family said...

That's terrible! So glad he's doing better!

Carrie Stead said...

Poor baby! I know it must have been an awful experience for all of you :( So glad he is doing better now!