Took Max to the ER yesterday :( (long)

iluvadam · September 2011

Poor little guy. MIL had him yesterday for a little why and took him to his favorite park. He went down the slide once and got up screaming and crying saying his butt hurt. She took one look at it and brought him home to me. He was in so much pain, could barely walk, and could not sit down. When I looked at it I immediately suspected that he had a staph infection. He had one on the back of his neck when he was 2 yrs old and this looked identical.

I called the pedi and they told me to take him to the ER because they would have to surgically remove it and would need sedation. H met me there and we took him in to be seen. The doc looked at it and agreed that it was an acute staph infection (not MRSA) and would need to be removed.

They hooked him up to a bunch of leads to monitor his heart rate. Also had him on the blood pressure monitor and the pulse/ox thingy on his finger. They gave him a shot of Ketamine(sp?) in his butt and within 1 minute he was gone. His eyes were wide open, his hands and fingers were completely spread apart, his mouth was open and he was breathing very shallow through his mouth. There were tears pouring down his cheeks and drool running in a steady stream out of his mouth. It was like he wasn't there. It was the most awful thing I have seen yet as a mother. He was just empty. Ugh, just typing this is making me picture it all over again. So after they sedated him, they draped the area and stuck a needle in to numb it locally. You could tell that it hurt him because he was arching his back and moaning a little bit but he couldn't really fight us physically. My heart just ached for him. I held his hand and whispered that mommy and daddy were there with him the whole time over and over again. They used a scalpel to cut open the area and then pulled out the infected puss for lack of a better term (sorry this is so gross). It was about the size of a quarter. They allowed it to drain for a minute or so and then cleaned the area and put a bandage on it. About 30-45 minutes he started to come around. He was able to speak but had very little muscle control. Once he was stable and pretty much out of the sedation they let us go home.

He is now on pain meds and antibiotics and is not allowed to play soccer for a week and a half...He is not a happy camper about that. He is resting comfortably and telling us all about how we had "lots of eyes and noses and heads" yesterday when he was on the sedative...LOL! It is so funny how kids can articulate something like that. I am so thankful that we caught this when we did and it is not a systemic infection. Thank you god.

MamaCrystal · September 2011

Glad you recognized it and it was taken care of quickly! Sounds like it was pretty scary, but you did a great job doing what needed to be done!

NicoleeBonsai · September 2011

oh gosh, that sounds so scary!

i'm glad they took care of it so quickly, i hope your little guy recovers well and doesn't have to go through that again.

schoolsoutbride · September 2011

Ouch! Poor kid and mama!

How did he get the infection, do you know? I wouldn't even think of that. What were the signs? Did the pain come on suddenly or did going down the slide aggravate it somehow?

ougrad1 · September 2011

I can't imagine how you felt when he went out under the anesthetic like that. Glad he's okay.

chrissc34 · September 2011

Sorry you had to go through this. Im glad he is on the mend and doing well. God speed to little Max. Im sure he will be kicking the soccer ball Beckham style in no time!

violaplayer · September 2011

I'm glad he is doing okay. I hope he recovers quickly!

RClaffee · September 2011

Oh how scary! Poor little guy

. A big thumbs up to you for recognizing it immediately though!

iluvadam · September 2011

schoolsoutbride:

Ouch! Poor kid and mama!

How did he get the infection, do you know? I wouldn't even think of that. What were the signs? Did the pain come on suddenly or did going down the slide aggravate it somehow?

First of SchoolSouth...your sig pic cracks me up every time I see it! Anyone with twins+an older sibling (or more) can completely relate to it. I always sort through the hundreds (thousands) of pics I take to find the ONE that doesn't have someone in it screaming but I think it is so awesome that you used the one of them screaming. So funny.

Ok, now on to your questions. Staph is found on many surfaces practically everywhere and it can enter your body through an open wound. The doc said even a hang-nail or a bug bit. So he could have gotten it essentially anywhere. Like I said in my post, he has had it once before on the back of his neck. It was what looked like a very large infected white-head pimple with a much larger circle of bright red (indicative of infection) area surrounding it. They also become very hard under the surface where the infected area is. From my understanding, once you have been infected with staph, you have a weakness in your immune system to it and are likely to get it again. That is how I knew when I saw it that that is what it was. The first time around I had absolutely no idea what it was. I just knew it was some kind of infection. He has probably had the bump for a couple of days but since he is almost 5, he goes to the restroom on his own and I hadn't seen his bum yet to have noticed it. I would bet that it has been bothering him for a couple of days but probably the slide just hit him in the right spot that it really irritated it and thus setting off the red flag to my MIL.

LnA5909 · September 2011

That is so scary! I am sorry you and your little guy had to go through that. Hoping he heals up quickly!

rjl07 · September 2011

So glad to hear he is ok and you were able to catch it pretty early. Hope he feels better soon!

Temp6313048411121614 · September 2011

Poor guy, I know it's so heartbreaking when your baby is in pain. Sorry you guys had to deal with that, hopefully he feels better soon.

LucyRicardo3 · September 2011

What a terribly emotional roller coaster ride for you! Good thing that your Mommy Intuition kicked in and you recognized the symptoms. I'm so thankful that little man is gonna be okay. He'll be running around chasing that soccerball again before you know it ((hugs))