The last of our family members left yesterday morning, a week after our first out-of-town guest arrived. It was a fun but very hectic couple of days with our parents here to celebrate Levi’s birthday, and I was looking forward to a quiet house and a chance to relax once they all went home.
Naturally, that didn’t happen.
After dropping off my mother-in-law at the airport, I raced over to Levi’s pediatrician’s office for an emergency appointment. JB and I were concerned about a blotchy, lumpy red spot on Levi’s upper right thigh. It was in the area where he had one of his vaccinations two weeks ago, and we weren’t sure if he was having a delayed reaction to a shot or if it was a bug bite-gone-bad.
All of Levi’s medical emergencies seem to take place on Wednesdays, the day his primary pediatrician is out of the office. Go figure! Although the doctor we saw wasn’t able to pinpoint the cause of the break in the skin (shot or bug bite), she did confirm that it was infected. The official diagnosis was cellulitis. Levi was prescribed his first antibiotic, and I began to panic. “Cellulitis” doesn’t sound so scary, but “staph infection” does, and there is a good chance that the bacteria causing the infection is staphylococcus. (It also didn’t help that I had just read post on Domestic Reflections about the blogger’s daughter coming down with MRSA.)
Thankfully, Levi had not been showing any serious signs of infection like chills, shaking, fever or a general ill feeling. He had actually been acting perfectly happy and full of energy! His only symptoms were a tiny sore, some redness and inflammation and bit of tenderness in the affected area. I’m so relieved that JB and I decided to not wait any longer to bring Levi to the doctor, although part of me wishes we had brought him in even sooner.
He’s had three doses of antibiotics, and I think the inflammation seems to be going down. Or perhaps I’m just seeing what I want to see. We have a follow-up appointment scheduled for Monday, although the doctor told us to come back right away if his rash extends past the border of a circle that she drew in pen on his leg.
Nothing is worse than when your child is sick. Please think healthy thoughts for us!
{iPhone photo taken 7/26/12}
way to go with your mama bear instincts!
when i was a young child (18 months?) i had a staph infection on a bug bite on my neck. i don’t remember it, of course, but my parents remember it as terrifying. i was in the hospital, had to have surgery, and if they had waited much longer it would not have been good. at all. but now i have a sweet scar on my neck.
so glad you did not have to go through that.
Oh wow, sorry to hear about your experience! I still super worried that it could turn into something worse, but I’m trying to be optimistic.
HI PJ! Not sure if this will ease your worries at all or not but given that the hubs works in the hospital every day we have all had several instances of staph and MRSA like stuff and it is NEVER a big deal. Just a dose of antibiotics and we are back to normal. No biggie. Obviously your commenter above had a different experience but that is not typical…so I wouldn’t worry too much as long as it starts to clear up 🙂
This does relieve a little bit of my fears–thanks!
Here’s hoping for a quick recovery! Hang in there, little Levi 🙂
Thanks, Courtney!