Squirt!

WARNING: THIS POST NOT FOR THE QUEASY!!!

I'm so serious about that warning...today was a rough day for me and my baby girl. Not sure if I posted about this when it happened to me, but while I was on the cruise, I noticed a pretty large bump on my back, which turned out to be an extremely painful abcess. I actually went to the doctor about it and got a big ole antibiotic shot in the butt and nearly 3 weeks of antibiotics 2x a day!

Well, a week (or so) ago, JG had a bite on her belly right below her panty line. I assumed it was a mosquito bite because it itched (my "bump" didn't itch). It didn't ever really go away and this week JG had started complaining about it, so I ended up putting neosporin on it and covering it with a band-aid to prevent her from messing with it/scratching it.

Yesterday morning, I made JG take the bandaid off so I could see and I thought it looked better than normal. But then last night it looked a little worse, so I left myself a message at work to remind me to call the doctor about it. This morning, JG came to my bedroom nearly in tears to tell me that she wanted to go see "Dr. Mary" right then. The bump was very dark red and apparently terribly painful.

I gave her two children's Tylenol and she felt better so went on to school until I could get in touch with the doctor's office. They had a place for her at 10am, so we went and since she's had a little cough, I figured they would give her an antibiotic shot, an oral for the cough and we'd be on our way, making good use of our one copay! Boy, was I wrong!

The nurse saw it and immediately said, "Oh, we're going to have to drain that!" Now, I don't know what you think of when someone says they are going to "drain" something, but I figured a tiny cut or even a tiny needle to suction out the infection etc. No. I was wrong. If you were thinking that too, then you were wrong. They did it the old fashioned way...

Now, before I go any further, I want to tell you that JG's pediatrician is the best in Nashville, in my opinion. I implicitly trust her judgement. She was very good and told JG everything they were going to do and that it was going to hurt really bad etc. They did give her EMLA cream to numb the area and then put a hot compress on it for quite a while. When it was uncovered, it was very ready to be "drained". Jenna laid on the table on her back and I held her hands above her head. The nurse held her legs and the doctor squeezed the abcess. I'll spare you the gory details, but I will tell you this, the nurse, the wall and even the CEILING of the room ended up with pieces of Jenna before it was all over. And I'm talking like the room had to be sterilized after we left. And Jenna screamed bloody murder and I choked back my own tears. I am telling you, there is nothing more heart wrenching than holding your child down while she screams and cries, "Please stop!! Please Mommy make them stop!!!" I can say I NEVER want to go through that again.

JG was a trooper though. Seriously. After it was over, they cleaned her up, covered it up, gave her some Motrin and loved on her in a million different ways. That child wanted to go back to school. I stopped and got her McDonalds since she'd missed lunch and by the time she got to school, you wouldn't have known anything had happened. Probably the strongest I've ever seen her. We are so blessed.

We have oral antibiotics to take 2x a day for 10 days and then go back to the doctor for a recheck. The good news is that the antibiotic ought to also knock out the cough she's had. They are sending some of the "specimen" that didn't land on the nurse, ceiling, or wall for culture. Let's hope it doesn't show anything unusual. And please join me in praying that they got all of it drained. It IS possible that it fills back up and would have to be drained again. I pray to God that doesn't have to happen.

So, that is how our day started out. I had originally taken a picture of Jenna waiting for the doctor with the thought it would make a cute blog post, with a picture of her band-aided arm (when I thought all she would get is a shot). Obviously, it turned out much worse and so the pictures just didn't seem to be appropriate! I'll keep you informed.

Daddy is doing well today. They will be removing the catheter tomorrow and hope that he has no issues with that. We are looking at next week before being discharged and perhaps a couple days of inpatient rehab before returning home. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.