Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sad today

I really did have a very funny, tasteless Tuesday story for you all, but it's been a sad, exhausting day for us here. I guess I'm just not in a funny mood.


We got the results from Ella's culture on her incision today. It was not the news I was hoping for, though I guess I don't really know what I was hoping for anyways. She definitely has a staph infection as my surgeon thought, but she has the worst type you can have. She has what they call MRSA Staph infection. It is very resistant to many types of antibiotics, and it's got the dr and us a bit worried as she is so young and still has an immature immune system. Right now, the best bet is to put her on a Sulfa med, which is another concern in it's own. Both my mother and I are allergic to Sulfa meds, and while Ella's pediatrician (they had to make the call as to which meds to put her on) swore an allergy to Sulfa meds isn't hereditary, I can't help but still be nervous about her being on them. So, obviously we are also keeping an eye out for any allergic reaction to the antibiotics.
Right now, the major concern is the staph infection spreading to either other parts of her body, or to me. The fact that I have 3 incisions me and catching the infection would NOT be good as I'm sure you can imagine. The one big concern for Ella is if she itches her wound and then touches her eye and it somehow infects her tear ducts. It could scar them for life and she would permanently tear, something that can't be fixed. There is also growing concern of another surgery in her future because of the severe scarring the scabs can leave. So much to worry about, and Miss Ella just keeps trucking along. She's a strong little thing I'll tell you all that!

In fact, here is a really yucky picture of her head after Dr E pulled half the scab off. Obviously all the red stuff was under the skin, like blood blisters, and it is a big bald spot now. The stuff to the left is the scab that he didn't get to.



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And then you can see the scab before it was touched by anyone. This is probably the best picture I have to show how bad it really was. The pic just doesn't do it justice. It was huge, and gross and stuff was draining out of it.

My poor girl, I don't know how she's handled it so well. She rarely touches it, and I'm sure it must itch like crazy.

Ella goes to see Dr E this Thursday to take a look at it again. I talked to Ella's pediatrician this afternoon and he said if her infection doesn't look better or gets worse within the next 3-4 days then we have to call immediately to bring her in to get looked at again. And I don't know what they would have to do at that point. No one has really discussed it yet.

I think we're all kind of afraid to at this point.

I will keep you all posted. Thanks for listening as usual.

2 comments:

Dawn said...

OMG Lindsay that is awful. It was definitely God's intervention having them go with you to your appointment. And just to think the other PS said it was nothing to worry about. My goodness. Poor girl. I will pray that she leaves it alone and it heals fully and that you don't get it.

She is so strong, hopefully the meds will work and she won't be allergic. I still can't believe it.

Now don't you get too stressed because you need to heal too and stress will not help.

sheree said...

oh mama, I am so sorry. We went through a MRSA scare with Gabby after her open heart surgery. No one was positive that it was indeed MRSA, but they treated it as if it were and it cleared up nicely.

Everything is going to work out. I am so glad she doesn't seem to be bothered by any of it. (((Hugs))) for her and YOU!