I had no idea what they were, so I just kept a close eye on them. By friday they had turned into scabs.
Saturday morning
(sorry for some reason the picture won't flip the right way)
On saturday she woke up with very red and sensitive skin and puffy red eyes. I couldn't even pick her up she hurt so bad. I took her into the instacare and a few hours later came out with a prescription and diagnosis of a Staph Infection.
She was hurting so bad this is what I had to deal with while we were there:
I was a little hesitant to believe this diagnosis, but put her on the antibiotics non the less. I started putting some essential oils (that I know cures staph) on her face along with the medicine. By sunday night there was absolutely no improvement :( Which really made me second guess the diagnosis of staph infection. Plus, she didn't have a fever.
Monday morning the redness had spread to her legs and was now covering her arms, chest, back, neck and thighs. I made an appointment with her doctor and took her in that afternoon. After the examination, he told me it was in fact a staph infection, just a very aggressive rare one that affects the skin, called Scalded Skin Syndrome. He told me to give the antibiotics another 24-48 hours and if she hasn't improved or she keeps getting worse, the next step would be for me to take her into the hospital! She was on the strongest oral antibiotic they could give her and the next one needed to be administered through an IV.
Monday morning
I tried to take a picture of her red skin, but it didn't do it justice. She looks like she has a sunburn all over her skin. The kind of sunburn that causes blisters and makes you unable to be touched without extreme pain.
I will be adding to this each day so I don't forget things.
Tuesday:
She woke up with super puffy eyes, but she didn't necessarily look any worse, except the burns have spread now to below her knees. I went to lunch with my sisters and mother in law at chick-fil-a (SSS is only contagious if you touch the sores on her. So going out in public was ok). While we were there she started shivering like she was freezing, and she wouldn't eat very much food. She couldn't open her mouth wide enough due to the sores on and around her mouth. Not being able to regulate her temperature was another symptom (due to the "burns" on her skin). I didn't feel she was improving enough, so I called Dr Worwood on my way to the hospital to let them know I was going to be taking her to the ER :(
I went in and we only waited about 30 minutes before getting back to a room. Once we got there the doc and nurses came in fairly quickly to check her out. Most of them had never seen anything like this before. The head nurse had however, and he was running around moving as quickly as he could. He told me that he had seen this go badly so was trying to get her hooked up and started on the antibiotic as quickly as possible. This guy use to work in a peds unit so I felt comfortable with him sticking her for the IV. He was confident and everyone said he was the best one to have there to do it. It took him 3 sticks to get it (her elbow and hand of her right arm and then it finally went in on her left arm)! That was the longest probably 15 minutes of my life. I had to help hold her down and she just screamed and screamed. The vein either kept collapsing or it would move from the pressure of the needle. Once they got her started on the antibiotics and gave her some fluids we waited to be transferred via ambulance to the pediatric unit at the "old" hospital. Ellie just slept while we waited (over an hour). She was completely worn out, poor girl.
Dr Worwood came by tonight and said she'd need to be on the IV antibiotics for 2-3 days. He said the blood test they did wouldn't be back yet but that he wanted a dermatologist to come by and look at her as well. There was a test called alkaline phosphate, that came back with some really high numbers, which made him think it was an error. So they are re-doing it. He ordered her to be on a constant fluid IV since she hasn't been eating well, to help hydrate her. It was also to help her burned skin.
They started her on morphine to help with her pain levels. She hasn't been sleeping well and we figured it was because her skin was hurting her so bad.
exhausted after the ER visit
I gave her a cookie and this was the happiest she has been all day.
notice the new blister that formed on her face above her eyebrow today
her "prison" I mean crib
after her 1 am antibiotic treatment she wouldn't let me put her back in the crib, she she slept in the bed with me. Which of course means I didn't get any sleep since someone is a bed hog! :)
Wednesday:
They came in at 6 am wanting to do another blood draw (to redo those test Worwood ordered). I asked them why they couldn't just take it from her IV, and they said it was against policy. They don't want to risk messing up the IV or getting contaminants in the blood sample. I told them to come back since she was sleeping. They said they could wait until 7. They needed the results to be in by the time the doc came back. So they came in at 7 and woke her up (which she HATED. She is not a morning person). It took them 3 tried AGAIN to get it right. They had the same problem they had in the ER, which I had warned them about. But they said since she had been on the IV fluids, they thought she'd be fine. Turns out, since she was so swollen from both SSS and the fluids that it made it even harder to find the veins. They used some numbing cream which worked wonders on the first poke, but once they moved down to her hand she flipped out. After they were done, we put lotion and creams all over her. We wiped her eyes down, which were sealed shut from both eye "goop" and from being so swollen. Then she went back to sleep and slept till a little after 12. (4+ hours) She ate a little, the dermatologist came in (she basically just said she agreed with the diagnosis and gave me some info to read), and we went on a fun little wagon ride to get her out of the room. She loved it. She was still really swollen from just waking up, and a little tired, so she doesn't look happy. But as long as she isn't crying or fussing, then she's pretty much happy, even though her face may say otherwise. She took a nap and Dr W. came in to check on her. He took her off the IV fluids, since she has eaten pretty good all day. He said if the test come back good, we'll be out of here on friday!
Wednesday morning
She loved the wagon!
We even went outside. She was almost asleep.
Thursday:
My happy, playful, fun baby girl is back!! She woke up with no swollen eyes! YAY!! She's still really swollen in her extremities (she's got the cutest little sausage toes) but thats normal. Dr W came in this morning and said she's looking great. Eating good, drinking enough, we're just waiting on one more test to see if the infection has moved to her blood stream. If it has we have to stay longer :( , if not we're still on track to be outta here tomorrow!! She's had lots of visitors today and has done so great with all of them. She's laughing, playing and just all around in a better mood. She started bleeding out of her IV injection site, so they cleaned it and re-dressed it to hopefully save it. But tonight before they did her round of antibiotics, they checked it and it was bleeding again :( So they had to re-stick her AGAIN!! Seriously I felt so bad for my little girl. They put the numbing cream on, which helps a ton, but she was still freaking out. Luckily the nurse tonight did an amazing job and got it in on her hand on the first shot! I finally got her to sleep now and hopefully she'll sleep good tonight.
The first night she slept the first half in the crib, but she woke up during her 1 am antibiotic dose and wouldn't go back down in it. So ever since then she's been sleeping in the bed next to me. Which of course means that I don't get any sleep. But she's getting some, which is what matters. Her poor feet and legs are really swollen. The rest of her body is slowly losing the extra fluid, but it must be going straight down because this girls got some major sausage toes and cankles going on. The nurse did tell me that she looked at the chart an it says her cultures still show negative. She said that they add some "food" for bacteria to the blood the drew out in the E.R. then every so often it is checked to make sure nothing is growing. If there was bacteria in her blood then things would start growing, meaning the virus had spread to her blood stream. It has been over 48 hrs since it was drawn and she said that if at the 48 hr mark nothing has grown, then nothing will. So I'm pretty sure we're going to be going home tomorrow!! Now to just have the doc discharge us in the am instead of pm...her'es to hoping for a quick and early discharge tomorrow.
Thursday morning, eating some bacon
Look at all her stuffed animals! She left the hospital with 3 new ones. And every time we went on a ride she insisted on bringing them all with her.
Just chillin on the bed.
Then we went back to the room ate dinner and watched some bubble guppies while Taegen pretended to be winning at a video game.
Look how swollen her feet are :(
Friday:
She slept absolutely terrible last night! I don't think she was in much pain (her feet are really swollen and after a full day of walking around I'm sure they were a little sensitive. We gave her a little bit of motrin to help, but other than that, she's not acting like she's in any pain. Dr. W came in this morning and gave the official word...we're outta here! Her skin is back to normal color, and the blisters and sores are almost gone from her face. Now her skin is just "sluffing" off (peeling) just about every where. Luckily the doc said it should be gone in about a week.
So excited to be leaving the hospital and get back to normal life. I'm so grateful for all the nurses and doctors that took such great care of my little girl. Any other time we've been in the hospital, there have been at least 1 nurse we didn't like. That was not the case this time. We loved every. single. one. Our stay could have been much worse, but these wonderful men and women took such good care of her and I'm eternally grateful for them!
Look how much better she looks this morning!
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1 comment:
I am so glad she is doing so good. I saw the fiest picture on Facebook the other day and I felt so bad but she is looking way better.
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