Sick kids and the case of the missing $100 bill

Oh my...I am so glad this month is ending. It has been crazy and I think things are slowing down.

We have had 2 sick kids. Early in the month (maybe end of Sept) I had to take both kids to the doctor. Tristan for his normal allergy sinus stuff and Taylor for an eye infection. Well due to our hectic schedules and burning the wick at both ends, we were horrible parents and didn't give him his antibiotic properly. It was sporadic. So needless to say, he has it all over again and I had to take him back on Monday.

It ended up being a dual appointment as Taylor got some new funk. I have had her at the doctor more this year than in her whole life. She's had strep, eye infections, a pulled muscle in her leg, and I can't remember what else. Well now she's ended up with the "new" staph infections in her leg. We are still waiting to see if it is a known strain or an unknown. But let me tell you about our experience. PLEASE take note - this has been a very serious ordeal for us and could have resulted in her being in the hospital. It's not over yet, but so far so good.

So around the 21st, a Sunday, she said she felt something on her leg that hurt. She looked down and it appeared to be a pimple thing. Kinda like what you get when you shave with a dull razor. So she popped it for 2 days and then she shows it to me. It had raised up and had a black head on it. I think it's an ingrown hair follicle or something like that and tell her to go pop it and put peroxide in it. She does. The next night she shows it to me and it still has a black head but it has raised up (about pea size) and is hard. There is a ring of red around it about the size of a half dollar coin. So then we think that maybe she got bit by a bug or a spider. So we make an appointment. By this time it is Friday.

The doctor tells us it is an abcess caused by a staph infection and she has been treating tons of them for the past 3 weeks. These things are very contagious and they are not really sure how you get them when you are perfectly healthy. But more than likely by contact with some who has it or has been exposed. (Our new nurse Tara might be able to shed some light.) My thoughts are that she must have been exposed at school as that is the only place she had been in a 1 - 3 day incubation period before she noticed it. It is in the middle of her inner thigh.

To treat it, the doctor numbed her and then popped a hole in it (needle was about inch and a half long and it went all the way in) and then she squeezed as much puss out of it as she could. Taylor's leg turned purple. It was gross and I was squeezing her hand more than she did mine. Big time EWWWWWW. So she cleaned it all up and sent us home with antibiotics. Tells us to have her wear loose clothes as these things hurt very very badly. Taylor has been limping around.

Over the weekend it gets worse and on Sunday nite, she shows it to me after her shower. The red puffy area around it completely covers her thigh - from where her leg bends to her knee - and is about 6 inches wide. Just red and puffy. So she went with me and Tristan on Monday. They tell us no....shouldn't be like that.

So they numb her again and the puss is coming out while the needle is in. (Sorry to be gross.) She gets a surgical knife to reopen it and when she does, she finds a hole. The whole knife went inside her leg. At this point, I am really freaking out to see this knife go all the way in her leg. So she tells us that the infection is eating her flesh. So I immediately ask if she has flesh eating disease. She says no, but it is similar and is much slower. So now Taylor has a huge hole in her leg. She says, they have to pack it to keep it from closing up and filling with puss again.

So they fill it with medicated gauze (which hurt like hell), give her an antibiotic shot in one hip, a pain killer shot in the other, and then add another antibiotic in pill form. The lab didn't bother processing her culture over the weekend so we are still waiting on the result to see what kind of infection it is. The doctor is very mad. So, we had to take her back yesterday to unpack it and repack it. She says it's looking better (the hole) but there is another area above it to be concerned about. She now has a huge knot under the skin that is hard and painful. The skin is red/purple and puffy.

Today she had permission to shower and take the packing out herself and she chose to do that. We went back and the hole looks even better. Almost looks like she has a gunshot wound. They stuck a big q-tip on the big stick in it to see how deep it is. I speculate about 1/2 inch give or take. The whole q-tip head went in. So now we are down to one bandaide - we clean it 3 times a day with peroxide and put neosporin in it so it will heal from the inside out. Can't let the skin close before the hole is gone. The big puffy hard area above it is still there. We have to put a heating pad on it every 2 hours to try to bring it to the surface so they can see if they need to drain it. I felt it today and my bet is that we will have to go through this again. Unless they can treat it with the meds after we get results tomorrow. We have to keep feeling it to make sure it doesn't get soft. If it does, we have to take her in immediately. Also if it gets redder or bigger we need to do the same. We have to call or go in on Friday to have them look at it to see if anything needs to happen over the weekend.

She can go back to school tomorrow. I was sorta bummed cuz although we have been stressed I haven't had to go in the office these 3 days. LOL I will have another 12 hour day tomorrow as I am covering one more event. It is my last for a while. Woo Hoo!

During all this madness of trying to get the right meds in the right kids, we have been worrying about money. We've been trying to be real careful with spending for a few weeks now. The first day we paid $119.00 and the second we paid $55.00 for meds and Tristan's co-pay. They are billing the insurance to see what will be covered for the "surgical" procedures so we will get a bill in the near future. The doctor is wonderful and gave us all free samples for Tristan and hasn't charged us for the past two days of followup. So during our stressful worrying about money time, Chance gave me a $100 bill to give to the daycare lady.

Now it is time for the CASE OF THE MISSING $100 BILL. At the time he hands it to me, I am sitting on the recliner with the laptop working. So I get up and lay it on the dining room table next to my purse. Not in my purse like normal but next to it. Not sure why I did that but we were going to town speculating about Taylor at the time. It was Monday. The table had lots of Taylor's school books and homework and some other stuff on it. So the next day, I plan to take the bill to daycare after Taylor's appointment. I can't find it. It is nowhere. So I spend my day looking for this stinking $100 bill feeling like I am going to throw up. What are we going to do if it is lost? We don't have an extra $100 to pay her. I stress all day about it. I ask Taylor if she saw it and she says no.

Chance came home that afternoon and I am in Tristan's room watching him play his game. He immediately asks if I found it. I say no, I've looked everywhere and torn everything up. It has disappeared. So he starts stressing. And then for some reason, divine intervention I suppose, I ask Tristan if he has seen any money laying around. (He has recently come into $21 dollars from the tooth fairy and from 2 of his grandma's.) He says yea. We both say, "WHAT???? Where is it?" He says, "In my wallet." So he pulls it out of his pocket and inside is my $100 bill. OMG!!!!! We were elated but then freaked out that he had actually taken $100 to school. What if he had showed that to someone or taken it out and lost it? It was such relief! I can now pay the daycare lady tomorrow. Yay!

Well that has been our life this week. I asked for the 14th and15th off so I can be around while Phil and Jackie are here. I hope she will let me off. I'm looking forward to normal hours and tonite is Trick or Treat. Tristan is going to be a skeleton. Taylor is going to be a teenager. LOL I will take some pics of him and post them.

This has been another long one. The moral of my post is to PLEASE GO TO THE DOCTOR if you get something on your skin that turns hard and hurts. These things are spreading everywhere and it's better to be safe than sorry. If this had not cleared up, she would be in the hospital so that a surgeon can fix it for her. We are thankful she is healing well. I wish I had taken pictures so you guys could see.

Cya later!