Abscession

It's time for another Exciting Story from the Emergency Room!

This week's installment stems from what started out as an innocent diaper rash. Yes folks, take notes because last night I learned that there are all kinds of calamaties that can befall a small child, some beyond what you are capable of imagining.

Tess had a rash that I would only tentitively classify as a diaper rash. I read in one of my many books-that-are-supposed-to-help-but-instead-make-you-paranoid that when you do the underwear switch sometimes their little butts become re-sensitized to urine when they wear diapers at night. Tess has been in underwear more during the day and in a diaper at night so I figured this was the case. She had one spot in particular that looked slightly more inflamed, almost like a pimple that was on her thigh right where the legband of her clothes would be. I attributed the extra irritation to run of the mill rubbing from the elastic and just tried to clean it extra good and lather on lots of Desitin.

It got a little bigger and so I decided to switch to bacitracin and a band aid to help it heal. It got better and I was happy and didn't think this would turn into a major issue. Imagine then my surprise when I came home from work last night to find that this thing had at least tripled in size and was pulsing with all kinds of unseen goo. She would not let me touch it, it was well past the time her doctor's office closed and all I could think of was this thing exploding and giving her blood poisoning so I bundled her up and took her to the ER with my husband, mother and sister all crammed into the car with us.

Frankly I expected them to tell my I was a neurotic nutcase but I couldn't care less. We saw the triage nurse who succeeded in making me feel like an unfit mother by asking me why I didn't bring her to the doctor earlier and clearly not believing me when I told her that this thing had gotten massive since the morning. She changed her tune when it turned out that it appeared to be a staph infection which led to an abscess.

Ever see an abscess lanced? It's really disgusting. They had to pin Tess to the table, she was NOT a happy camper, and cut into this thing. In all fairness they barely had to touch her with the blade before the abscess completely burst open spewing forth all manner of foul fluids. They drained it out, cleaned her up and took a culture. Then it was time for the blood test to make sure that the bacteria was localized and didn't spread to her bloodstream as I had feared. She was actually pretty good for the blood draw, probably because she had me, my mother and my sister all screaming songs in her face and making her count to twenty over and over again. The rest of the ER probably wished us all dead but at least they got the blood out. We were told that she would have to be admitted for a few days if there was any bacteria in her blood which filled me with levels of joy I didn't know were possible.

Finally the doctor returned to tell us that her blood test was fine and the culture would be back in two days to a week and I could call her doctor for the results. We got a prescription for an antibiotic and were sent packing, thank God.

Tess is perfectly fine, she doesn't like for me to touch or even look at her 'boo-boo' but if you promise her a cookie she will lay still and let me clean it out. Hopefully everything will clear up and this will be the end of it but once the culture comes back and we know if it is staph or another bacteria we may have to get a new medication. I am bringing her to her pediatrician on Friday just so he can have a look too.

The good times just keep on coming! Anyone else have a freaky illness story, do tell, I need to know what I am in for!