A little after Laynie turned 5 months, my poor baby had her first hospital stay. She developed this little rash on her bottom that looked like little pimples. We went to Austin for my birthday in early January and I remember her having it then but it would come and go with diaper cream so I didn't think much of it. On Monday, January 13, when I dropped her off at Ms. Anna's the bump didn't seem bad...nothing to worry about. It was on her left butt cheek. By the time I picked her up, it had gotten bigger and redder. I knew we probably needed to go to the doctor but was planning on taking her the next day after work. I decided though to go ahead and make her an appointment for Tuesday morning. Monday night, she became increasingly more fussy and the spot was continuing to redden and she started running a little fever. By Tuesday morning it was firm, had come to a white head, and was warm to the touch. It was also painful when it was touched. Thank God I had decided to take her to the doctor instead of waiting! We had to see Dr. Onhaizer, one of the other pediatricians at Pearland Pediatrics, because Dr. Gray (her regular pedi) was on maternity leave. He took one look at it and said it was an abscess that needed to be incised and drained meaning they would have to poke it with a needing and apply pressure to push the infection out. Sorry for the gory details! He contemplated sending us to Texas Children's right then. I really appreciated how much thought he put into it (I could tell he was really pondering the best decision) so I asked him what he would do with his own children. He said that's exactly what he was thinking about and said that he felt that we had caught it early enough to handle in the office. They moved us to a larger room in the office so that he had more room to move. He sprayed lidocaine on it to topically numb it but aside from that, there was no anesthetic. As soon as he sprayed the lidocaine, the abscess opened on its own but he still had to puncture it with the needle to make sure it was open enough to push all of the infection out. He applied a lot of pressure and there was quite a bit that came out. Needless to say, this was absolutely horrible to experience! She cried so so much! I felt so so bad. At the end, he placed a large band aid on it and gave us an antibiotic cream to apply. He also said she would need to sit in warm baths a few times a day to continue pushing the infection out. We went home and spent the rest of the day with lots of cuddles of course!
By the next day (Wednesday), the spot looked a little bit better and she had broken her fever so we were crossing our fingers we were on the right track. However, by the end of the night, it wasn't really looking much better and she was still in pain. I called all of my nurse friends/family possible to see if anyone could provide any tips. My cousin Lorie who works in cardiology at Texas Childrens ended up being my life line and offered the best advice! I explained everything to her and she said from what I was explaining that it may be closing back up and that unfortunately, with cases like this, they often have patients who tried to take care of it in office but ended up in the hospital anyway. She said they would probably end up admitting her to the hospital and perform surgery and to keep her on strong antibiotics. I thought this was crazy!! I was freaking out and praying that it was in fact healing rather than worsening. As the night progressed, the area was still very red, hot to touch and was becoming firm again. I called the on-call doctor and he said it did sound like it was closing back up and that she would need to be seen again. He didn't feel it was severe enough to need to rush to the ER because ER's at night are a mad house but he suggested that we take her into the office first thing Thursday morning. We went ahead and did that and by the morning, it had come to a head again meaning it definitely need to be opened and drained again. Dr. Onhaizer said they could do it again in office but we decided to go ahead and take her to the ER.
We got to the ER and there was only a few other kiddo's there waiting, thank goodness. We still had to wait quite a long time in the ER room before we knew what was happening. The worse part was that we could not feed her anything in case she had to have surgery. We finally got confirmation around 5 or 6 in the evening that they would in fact perform surgery to incise and drain the abscess and that she would have to be placed under general anesthesia and everything. Everything Lorie had told me was spot on! She definitely knows her stuff! I'm so glad she had told me all of that before because I probably would have been beside myself had I now known that was a possibility in advance. They started IV's to get her some fluids to keep her hydrated since she could not eat anything. Putting the IV in was so difficult because her little hands are chubby and her veins are hardly visible. The nurse had to put a light under her hand to illuminate her veins. He missed the first time and had to stick her again. Daddy had a VERY difficult time watching this and became very impatient! I stayed holding her head and trying to console her while he was on light duty to help the nurse see her veins. Ultimately, we had to turn the lights off with the small light under her hand until the moment he pushed the needle in to allow visibility as long as possible. Once it was in, and she calmed down, my sweet happy baby was her typical happy self! She was even trying to wiggle around and roll like she always does. My baby was so so strong! My mom came around 8 in the evening to bring us clothes and some other things we needed and stayed until Laynie was out of surgery and into a room.
They finally took us up to the Pre-Op surgery area around 8:30 or 9. The 3 of us got of course got to sit there with her until they took her back around 9:30. I'm surprised how well I did through all of this! I never cried once. I guess knowing that I was at one of the best hospitals in the world with the best doctors and also having the heads up from Lorie before all of this actually happened was comforting. The procedure was very quick. She was out in about 20 minutes. They made two incisions, basically poked two holes and drained it out completely. A loop drain was placed between both holes to keep it open. The "loop drain" looked more like a twist tie used at the grocery store and allowed for infection to continue to exit if there was any. It would need to stay in for a week then could be removed. Once she was in recovery, they fed her right away and boy was my poor baby hungry! She was a little groggy and fussy but once she was awake, which was only after about 15 minutes, she was smiling like crazy!! The nurses couldn't get over it! We were in recovery for a bit then were moved to a room for the night. They continued her on IV fluids and antibiotics. She did great through the night so we were able to head home by about 11 the next morning. She would continue to need to sit in a warm bath a couple of times a day so Nana (Corey's mom) came to the rescue and kept Laynie for a few days so that I could go back to work. Gammie (Corey's step mom) also kept her one day. I am so so thankful for all of the help we got from our parents during all of this! She healed perfectly from everything and now has a little scar where each hole was...nothing major that anyone will see anyway.
I asked the doctor over and over again what we did wrong that caused this. I will be the first to admit that I am not a germ-o-phone at all...if some food falls on the floor, pick it up and eat it! I just don't freak too much about germs and I can honestly say I am hardly ever sick. So I asked if it was possible that I was not clean enough...should we have done something different with the rash?? What did we do to cause this?!?! I was assured by multiple doctors that it was just bad luck. There was nothing I did "wrong" to cause this. He said some kids just get these and that the diaper area is a very common area because it's warm and confined. He said they sometimes see kids who get them over and over. I'm praying our case is not one of those! Needless to say, if I see any little rash or bumps on her, I am on it like white on rice! We keep a tube of the antibiotic cream just in case. Lab results later confirmed that it was staph with MRSA. We're still not certain where it came from but the doctor explained that staph can easily be carried and "live" in various places of your body without infecting the area, like nostrils. He had us put antibiotic cream in our noses as well to kill the infection in case it were there. Fortunately the antibiotics she was on were effective and she has been perfectly fine since then!
The week all of this happened was also my first week of classes for grad school. I swear it seems God was testing my limits with all of these things going on. I kid you not...life has been non-stop since our episode with the hospital! It is finally slowing down a little but only temporarily!
Now the fun stuff about my little Wiggles! I tried to jot down notes as much as possible in my phone so that when I finally had the time to blog, I would remember it all!
At 5 months she was still taking 2 naps: 1 in the late morning and one late afternoon. We finally transitioned her to sleeping in the crib January 5 and she did wonderful! She LOVES her blanket and likes to have it on her face when she goes to sleep. At first this was a little scary but she's been fine. Over the weekend while we were in Austin (before the hospital), she found her tongue and sticks it out most of the time!
Laynie officially turned 6 months old on January 25. She weighed 14 lbs and was in the 14th percentile for weight. She was 25 inches and in the 22 percentile for height and came down a little in percentiles for head circumference at 43 cm which is in the 63rd percentile!
She is still wearing size 3 month clothes and size 2 diapers. Laynie is drinking Gentlease formula (we buy the store brand) and has cereal with a bottle in the morning and eats stage 1 foods for lunch and dinner in addition to her formula.
She is sitting up really good and started getting to her knees as if she may crawl. She also experienced her first Super Bowl and cheered on the Denver Broncos! We spent super bowl sunday at Lacey & Casey's house.
Laynie is such a good and happy baby! She smiles so much and is just so content! She loves her jumperoo and the bouncy seat. She also loves playing in her Laugh and Learn Car. Rex loves it too and has to be reminded that it is Laynie's car, not his! Watching the two of them has continued to be so exciting!
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