The Toe

For those of you who missed it, we had quite the scare the week before Thanksgiving. It started Friday afternoon when Bug started complaining that his toe was hurting. It did look a little red, so I decided to have the doctor look at it. She took an x-ray and looked closely for a bug bite, but didn't find anything and sent us home with instructions to use Benadryl and a prescription for antibiotics just in case. Fast forward six hours and things were looking much worse. The redness of his toe was moving up his foot and he just wasn't acting himself. We decided to take him to urgent care, where they took one look at him and immediately sent us to Cook Children's in Fort Worth

Finally asleep after 1am - started on IV antibiotics and waiting to be sent to a room. The doctor on call told us that we could either be checked in or wait to see how the oral antibiotics would work at home because his symptoms weren't too serious. 20 minutes after we decided to stay, he began running a temp of 102 and throwing up.

 Enjoying the first of many popsicles. Notice the puffy red face - he had a reaction to one of the antibiotics and was taken off of it. Thankful that he wasn't allergic to the antibiotic that took care of the type of infection he had!

Perking up a little after the first rough night - playing with a game from sweet friends that came to wish him well.

On the second day, his IV infiltrated and had to be removed. Poor guy was too sick to care during the insertion of the first one, but was not happy the second time around! Thankfully, Daddy was there to hold him and the second one stayed put.

Feeling a little better the second evening. This day was rough because he spent most of it with one hand wrapped for the IV and the other hand wrapped in hot cloths to take the swelling down.

Resting the third morning after the doctor's visit. His toe looked pretty terrible by now, so the doctor decided to "lance" it and drain the fluid. They sent it off to be tested, confirmed his infection (staph), and watched his toe just a little longer before releasing us to go home.

Starting to feel a little antsy after three days in the same bed!

 Finally unhooked and ready to go home!

Crashed in the car on the way home. Cook has a Build-A-Bear in the hospital, so we were able to take Bug to make a polar bear as a special treat for being such a trooper. The nurses were very impressed with his behavior. I must admit that I was a little surprised myself! He asked to leave a lot (Go out there? Go church? Go library? Go Wal-Mart? Go grocery store?) but he didn't ever really get out of control - we watched Toy Story 3 nine times, Tangled twice, Cars twice, and a little PBS and Disney Channel. I don't know what I would have done with him if he hadn't been interested in the television! I have to mention that the hospital staff was nothing short of impressive. The nurses were excellent, and there was a steady stream of volunteers bringing books, toys, and a special prayer bear for Bug, as well as offering to sit so I could get some food or to ask if I needed any travel toilitries or magazines. I'm so thankful to live close to such an excellent hospital, and couldn't have asked for better care.

Happy to be home!!! We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving as we originally planned, but we were beyond thankful to be at home as a family. Spending a few days in the hospital brings a realization that some people stay there a lot longer than we had to for a lot more serious situations. We are so blessed to have healthy kids. Thank you, God, for watching over our little one during such a scary time and for bringing him home whole, healthy and happy!