More Medical Woes

BEWARE: This may be the longest post ever. Just want to document all the details for myself.

So, the weirdest thing happened to Caden. On his third day of school, things were moving along pretty well. He was going okay, having fun, meeting new kids, doing fun things. All the fun things a mom wants for her kindergartner. Well, the morning of the third day he woke up and said his foot hurt. I passed it off as nothing, and told him that he had probably hurt it the night before at football practice. I went on to tell him all about my experiences playing sports in high school, and those things happen a lot, but that it would get better. Well, he said nothing more until after school. He had a friend over playing, and once or twice he told me his ankle hurt. I again told him he had probably just rolled it at practice, and it would feel better before long. We'd have daddy look at it when he got home. After all, he was running around with his friend, looking normal, and only mentioning it occasionally.

Well, around 5:00 we were running to the store to get something and he told me once more it hurt. I sat him down and looked at it and it was HUGE!!! From his toes all the way up to his knee he was swollen and I couldn't even see his ankle. What? We took him to my sisters house whose husband is a dentist. He's had some medical classes, and he thought it a little odd. He tends to be kind of laid back about this stuff, but he thought it needed to be looked at. We called one other person in our ward who has some medical training to see if he'd look at it too. He had the same opinion, that it needed attention tonight. He used the word 'cellulitis' and explained that if it was that, we would want immediate medical attention.

Well, I called and made arrangements for my mutual group, letting them know I wouldn't be there. We called our family Dr. but they don't have after hours. I called our Pediatrician and they wanted to send us for x-rays. After I asked more questions and gave her more information (I knew x-rays weren't the answer...his bones were not sore and he had full range of motion) she went ahead and had us come downtown.

Well, once the Dr. saw it she was quite perplexed. Not only was it swollen, it was really red and hot which was concerning. She couldn't figure out why there was no pain when touched. If it was an infection, that should be uncomfortable. Well, she recommended to us that we hospitalize him immediately and get him on an antibiotic drip over night, then watch him. Was she serious? I had no idea it was this serious. This made Ryan nervous, Caden started to cry, I was about to cry. He was doing so well in school, trying so hard to be brave everyday, I just felt this was going to be so traumatic for him. We asked a lot of questions because she just didn't seem confident in what she was telling us, and so I was really not comfortable with what she had to say.

I stepped outside and called my mom to see if she could make some phone calls. Our family Dr. is in their ward and another friend is an ER Dr. I just wasn't comfortable putting him in the hospital, and I wanted another opinion, but was concerned to ignore her recommendation if that was better for him. My mom made a few calls and of course no one was available. I got myself together and went back in. After talking it through with the Dr., we decided to get an oral antibiotic, take him home, and check on him every hour through the night. This certainly wasn't the easiest option, and at the time I didn't even know if it was the best option, but it is what we decided to do.

We stopped at my mom's on the way home and had my dad and Ryan and Matt give him a blessing. Although the blessing was for him, it gave me and Ryan such peace. We felt it was going to be okay. We took him home and started a long night of hourly checks, looking to see if the redness or swelling had changed, taking calls from the on-call Dr. (she was nice to follow up...she was just checking his progress). Waking up every hour during the night and trying to get your mind and eyes to work is a chore. But he seemed okay.

The next day we were supposed to follow up with the Pediatrician, but I wanted my family Dr. to see him. One, to get a second opinion. Two, in case they needed to put him in the hospital, this Dr. would put him up in the one closer to us. When I called the family Dr. to get him in, the nurse suggested we may need to just take him to the ER. The swelling had spread up his leg some more, and she thought that we needed to get him right in. Well, the Dr. wanted to see him first and I'm so glad we did. Although the leg just looked terrible, his gut was that it was okay, it wasn't infected, and that we just needed to keep on the anti-biotic. Rest, ice and wrap were the Dr.'s orders. Keeping a 5 year old down for very long is tough, but Caden was good. The Dr. was right...that was all he needed. I really feel like prayers were answered. It healed so quickly and Caden felt so much better.

These pictures were taken the day after, when some of the swelling had subsided. The black marks and dot were to track the swollen areas and redness.