Date #15 & Staph

I know, I know . . . no pics. Lame. Well, we had such a FUN date #15. Mike and Stacy hosted a potluck and game night. We laughed so hard and really just felt happy to get away from life for a few hours with each other. The sad thing is that we were both so tired that it was hard to concentrate, but we really did have fun! Thanks for hosting guys!

Also, Matthew got staph last week . . . or so we thought. Basically, he had a bike accident on Wednesday or Thursday before our trip to Dallas. Sunday afternoon, white pimples appeared all over his right knee. He cried about said bumps and I chalked it up to "grouchiness-tiredness (I'm really good at missing those cues from my children)." Said bumps turned to boils on Monday. Mother-in-law lanced and cleaned them. We headed home.

Tuesday night, Matthew complained of feeling cold, when it was extremely hot. He told me how his teacher thought he had a fever at school at that afternoon (but it was while he was heading to the bus). Sure enough, Matthew had a temp of 101. Okay. Not a high-grade, but a fever nonetheless.

Wednesday, Matthew woke up with MANY pimples going down his leg, MANY boils, and one black spot the size of a dime with yellow stuff underneath (Sorry for the description. It was sick!). I called the doctor and by the time our appointment arrived, the black spot had turned green, grew to the size of a quarter, and exploded all over. The boils on the rest of his leg grew bigger, as did the pimples.

When the doctor looked at his leg, she sort of freaked out. "Oh my word! How long has this been going on?! Keri, this is a really bad infection. I'm almost positive it's staph, but we're going to take cultures and send them to the lab. In the meantime, I think he needs injection shots of syrum antibiotics. Plus, I'm giving you topical antibiotics, as well as oral."

The big issue was the cross-reactivity. All of my boys are allergic to penicillin, which is always the best antibiotic to treat with. However, on this particular infection, a drug with a higher percentage of cross-reactivity must be applied. Now, the regular cross-reactivity drugs / cefalo-sporins (Please don't laugh at my medical spelling.) are fine; my boys have had them many times. This one, however, they acted really funny about.

Different people kept coming into the room to look at his leg (from his knee to his ankle), and then, someone actually kept checking to make sure he was breathing after they did the shots--which by the way, were SUPER painful for this little guy. They explained that the medicine had a high dose and it was thick. They actually took several, several seconds to inject the medicine. Poor guy.

After the shots and the 3, almost 4 hours at the doctor's office, Matthew's leg presumed the condition of struggling to walk--as it had earlier when he woke up.

So . . . we stayed away from other kiddies, washed clothes and sheets and everything in sight . . . and then, today . . .

"Hi, Mrs. Allred? This is so and so from Dr. so and so's office. The culture came back with a different bacteria than presumed. Matthew needs to stop drinking the Bactrim and I'm calling in a new drug. He has strept in his leg--not staph."

Me: "What?!"

I'm feeling really grateful that we are having his tonsils removed in December. No, he did not get strept in his leg from his throat, but he could have. This is where the bacteria was originally introduced and where it continues to appear each month. And no . . . my current strept/sinus infection is not from Matthew's strept in his leg, but still . . . I wonder. What the heck is up with this kid getting strept like he does??!

Anyway . . . Matthew had his first soccer game on Saturday. It was hot as the blazes outside, so little bodies did not feel like playing soccer, but we persevered. Matt scored his first goal, and then, he didn't want to play the rest of the game. Imagine?

We're about finished with Harry Potter. Very exciting. First time reading that myself or to my children.

And last, I've lost 65 pounds officially.