Go Team Antibiotics!
Life is happening at such a furious pace lately that things here are all discombobulated.
Man, I love that word.
Discombobulated.
ANYWAY! That's how it came to pass that I posted a photo of Alexis wearing a giant pink bandage on her arm without having explained how she earned that giant pink bandage. To explain that, I have to jump in the bloggy time machine and back up to last Friday.
I was in New York. When I left the kid, she was absolutely 100% intact and healthy and every bit as crazy as she always is. But, as I was sitting at BlogHer waiting for the next conference session to start, my phone rang. It was the husband and he had called to report that "the thing on Alexis' arm is all swollen and red."
"The thing" was in reference to a tiny little raised spot that had been just above the inside of her elbow for months and months and months. It look, basically, like a little zit. It was a tiny raised space that seemed harmless enough, but that I had made a mental note to have checked next time we were at the pediatrician's office. It was smaller than the tip of a nail. No big deal.
Except that "swollen and red" is kind of a big deal. The husband reported that it had grown HUGE he was going to try to pop it.
I wish I could see your face right now. I bet your jaw just dropped to the floor, exactly like mine did.
I told him to back away from the kid's arm and take her to the doctor. Because, well, if anybody is going to scar the kid for life by squeezing gunk out of a bump on her arm, it should be someone who gets paid to traumatize kids using their fancy college degrees. Long story short, he ended up taking her to the nearest urgent care place. They lanced it and drained it, which is fancy words for THEY MADE MY BABY CRY AND THERE WAS BLOOD.
Now, the child makes me want to smash my head through a wall sometimes with her toughness. Seriously, she's tough. If she says her ears are maybe bothering her a tiny bit, she'll have a severe double ear infection when I take her to the doctor. No joke. HOWEVER, and this is a very big HOWEVER, she is a total and complete wuss about things that shouldn't hurt. I seriously was considering calling a priest to perform an exorcism when she stepped on some weeds outside and we had to pull a splinter out of the bottom of her foot. She screamed and she screamed and she screamed.
So I wasn't there when a doctor cut her open and made her cry, but I do know it must have hurt like hell. She just doesn't complain about real pain. Imaginary, invisible, microscopic pain? Oh, she complains about that. A LOT. She only complains about real pain when she's near death, though.
Anyway, the doctor took a culture and sent it in and we started keeping an eye on the wound. As days went by, it didn't seem to be improving and when we got the call with the results, we had an explanation.
I'm not going to tell you what sort of cootie found its way into my kids blood stream because then one of you will Google it and will tell me all sorts of scary things in plain English in the comments. I already did the Google thing and nearly passed out dead from the two not-really-in-English lines I read about it. I DON'T NEED TO GET MORE FREAKED OUT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
But ... cooties. Not MRSA, thank goodness, but still. Cooties. There are cooties in her blood.
I found out about the confirmed cooties as Alexis and I were driving home from Kennywood. We had spent the entire day riding water rides, meaning I made good on my promise to get wet over and over and over for her amusement. (She was highly amused.) The husband called me with the results and dropped the little detail that the particular bacteria she encountered are spread via water.
We talked about her pool for a minute, but I pointed out that it couldn't be the source because she hasn't gone swimming in a few weeks. The timing doesn't work.
Then we went back and forth about the lake. She has gone swimming there a couple of times this summer, but then I realized it has been too long since we last made that trip as well.
And then I remembered that there was a water thing that fit in the window of opportunity for cootie proliferation.
Kennywood. She rode a water ride at Kennywood with a friend at about the right time for the cooties to get transferred.
I figured that out as water was still dripping from my hair, you guys. KENNYWOOD WATER.
I've taken three showers since then and Alexis has taken two. She's lucky I haven't made her swim in a pool filled with bleach, if we're being honest.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Reader Comments (13)
See...now I really wanna know what the cootie is so I can google it and get all grossed out. I PROMISE I wont tell you anything about it ;)
Oh no!
I hate to be That Person who corrects bloggers I love about nitpicky medical details, but I do want to try to protect you from the kind of misunderstanding that could make doctors panic in the future. If they did a culture from the goop that came out of her arm, she had the bacteria in the wound, but not in her bloodstream. If you later tell docs she had a bloodstream infection with bacteria X, they will picture her deathly ill in the ICU hooked up to life support, which is generally what happens with bacteria in the blood. Docs having that impression would likely result in large scale freakouts by everyone. So I thought it might be good to clear up before it bit anyone on the behind. Sorry to be That Person.
And THIS is one reason that I refuse to ride water rides in general. Plus, if you think she got this from a water ride at Kennywood, just imagine what form of cooties are living in the waters at Sandcastle?!?!?!
I took B to the doctor the day before I left for NYC because he had this HUGE and semi painful red welt on his leg. Turns out it was an infected spider bite (which I presume he got while "camping out" on my MIL's living room floor) but I was also worried about the dreaded MRSA. And yes, I'm totally on Team Antibiotics!!
Sorry about the "cooties"... that's no love.
Too bad you didn't tell us what bacteria so we can goggle it and freak out along with you.
Finally! A post mentioning Kennywood that does not make me long to visit Kennywood!
What about the water steps at PNC Park? Did you do those yet? Because that water looked digusting when my kids were in it. I wouldn't even put my toe in it. Yuck!
so glad alexis will be ok. scary shit. (docs threatened to amputate my arm years ago due to nasty cooties in my blood so i am really, really thankful it is a different kind of cootie she picked up. crazy super bugs. blech!)
You know, when I looked at that pic over the weekend, I totally didn't even realize it was a bandage. I just thought it was a new trend and it was a hot pink arm band or something.
huh.
Good thing your DH took her in and didn't try to de-cootify her himself!
So glad I didn't read this yesterday since my son was adamant about riding all the water rides at Kennywood when we were there yesterday. Also super glad we didn't skip baths last night after a long and late day.
Uh, yeah. So I'll stick to no water rides at Kennywood or anywhere else. Ever. thankyouverymuch
Hope she's better. And that you don't get Cooties.
Sandcastle is actually heavily chlorinated so ita pretty safe. When kids poop in the pool (diapers ect)i they immediately xlose it and shock the pool. (My dad was a plumber there for a while)