Sarah's First TCH ER visit and Staph infection!

I had been planning on writing about Sarah's boo boo earlier. BUT, plans changed as we got out of the baby pool and noticed that her bite actually got bigger and i had to call the dr. to see what i should do.

To make a long story short. Yesterday, Melody, Anseli & I went to a park/splash pad to hang out with the kidos. The girls all had a blast as usual..it seemed like a normal day. As i was putting Sarah in the car i noticed a bite on the back of her ankle that looked like a mosquito bite. No biggie, she's had them before and she's never been allergic to them. I totally blew it off as no biggie...never heard a peep from her about it either. Well, this morning as i was changing her out of her pj's i noticed she had a swollen ankle(a cankel for the lack of better words)...it looked horrible. I didn't know exactly how much benadryl to give her so i called Walgreen's. The first one i called was some lazy b that wanted nothing to do with me...she told me to call the dr. and ask and then hung up on me. So i decided to call another Walgreen's out in the burbs(one day we will live out there) and a nice young man told me to give her 1/4-1/2 tsp and put some bendaryl cream or gel on it. I did that and thought it'd definitely go down. We played and ate lunch..then went outside to play in the pool. Afterwards we came in to clean up and take a bath. I checked it and low and behold it was bigger. I decided i needed to call the dr. and see what i should do. She told me to go straight to Texas Childrens due to staph infection risks. I asked her if i could go to the cypress ER instead..she told me to hold off and she'd call TCH and see how long the lines were there. She called me back and said there was only one child waiting and to go ahead and head on up there. SO, i packed all Sarah's stuff and we went on up there. We didn't wait long. The took us right back..took her BP on her little ankle and took her temp and weight. Then back into the front area to wait. Not long later they came to get her. It was so cool how everyone had bubbles in their pockets to settle down the babies. Sarah wasn't having it either way. She, for the first time, didn't give 2 squats about bubbles. She just wanted me to hold her. So that is what i did. The dr. came in pretty quickly and checked her over. She actually took a pen and drew around the entire area, so we could watch and make sure it started to go down and not up. She said it was staph and that i should soak it 3xs a day in bleach water. WHAT? BLEACH WATER? She told me the new thing is to cleanse your skin with bleach. She told me if you called poison control today and said you were bit by something, the first thing they'd say would be to get a cotton ball put some water on it and then a drop of bleach. WEIRD! But it gets even worse. She told me to give all 3 of the girls baths in 1/4 cup of bleach a day. WHAT??? I think that seems awfully weird and dangerous...so i'm going to get a second opinion on that one. Any nurses reading along? Have you heard of this before? She said that bleach cleans the body and that 20% of her cases involve staph. She said to use Lysol on door knobs with bleach...everything with bleach. I have NEVER heard of that before in my life. What about bleach getting into your girly parts? I just won't do it...until i'll take a bath with bleach myself. I won't do anything to my children that i won't do to me first. PERIOD! So i'm going to call and ask my dr. about it tomorrow...or my pedi i should say. Just seems really scary and weird to me.

So, anyway, the dr. came in..took a look, diagnosed and left. It was SOO quick. The long part was waiting for the paperwork people to get their stuff done. I seriously think we sat around for another 1.5-2 hrs waiting for discharge papers. UGH! Then to the pharmacy to get meds...but the pharmacy was closing...so we went to another Walgreen's/24 hr pharmacy to get her meds. Then to get gas...ok get this..i spent $137.45 on gas and didn't even fill up my car! OMG! What is going on in this crazy world of 4.09 for gas??? I'd go get a more gas efficient car..but i'd never be able to sell my suburban...so what's the point?

Anyway, got the meds and gave them to Sarah. What was kinda funny. The dr. at TCH & the pharmacist BOTH said it'd be hard to get the meds down Sarah b/c it tastes NASTY...they both said to do what i could to get it down her mouth. Uh, no problem. Sarah drank it soo fast, i'm not sure it even touched her tongue! LOL! Not a problem for her at all.

Anyway, here's a few pics from our day! OK, people probably thought i was a freak for taking pics and seeing camera flashes in our room..but what would my blog be w/o pics to show her later of her first trip to the ER!

Please note: if you ever have to take a child to the ER, do not forget a bag o tricks. Sarah had all sorts of fun things in mommys purse..credit cards, insurance cards, antibacterial wipes, don't forget a sippy of water, and something fun a new...i took a new book she had only read once...and we read it about 50x's. She HAS to know what a alligator, chicken, cow, goat, rabbit, monkey and turtle look like. We read it over and over again! Also, what is a girl w/o her phone..and always take a jacket. It gets pretty chilly in there. What new things can i find in mommys purse?? Hmmm..

Think that's all for now. Sure hope that her boo boo goes down...i don't want to have to do that again! Sarah was also SOOO glad to be home. Poor baby!