The Past 3 days

For those of you who are not on Facebook, I am sorry.  I said I was going to update here more, but the past few days I've fallen back to FB.  I didn't think there was that much to update so I did short ones on there....but that seems to have turned into a 3-day saga that has not ended yet.  Saturday afternoon I noticed a clear fluid-filled blister on the inner edge of Shelby's right eyebrow.  Very concerned that this little blister, showing up out-of-the-blue, could lead to a repeat of this, I called the on-call GI here in Rockford.  She ordered labs so we could see what Shelby's little body was doing.  They looked o.k. so we were told to just watch her.  No fever and she slept well that night so I thought when she woke up Sunday morning all was going to be well.  Wrong...  


She woke with what looked like a scab where the blister was and this really red "rash" under that eye.  The on-call GI was called again and she wanted Shelby to get looked at at Immediate Care.  We spent a good 2 hours there Sunday afternoon only to be diagnosed with impetigo and sent home on Cleocin.  In the 1 1/2 hours between dropping her off at home and finally getting home from the pharmacy with the filled script, her rash had doubled to what you see in the pics. 

Again, we called the on-call GI and she thought it would be best if we headed to the ER to be admitted for overnight observation.  We spent 5 hours in the ER only for it to be decided that it definitely was NOT impetigo, nor anything infectious, and that Shelby did not need to be admitted.  I reminded them of March 2009 and said "Ok," but still did not feel right about things.  Shelby and I arrived home after midnight and quickly fell asleep.


She did not wake until after 11:30 this morning and I was happy to see that the redness had faded quite a bit, but very frustrated to see that she had developed 2 new small blisters on the other eye's inner eyebrow plus the original blister had filled with some fluid again!  I put a call into our GI because they had already called this morning checking on her and relayed what I saw.  I also added that Shelby had been having "unusual" BM's for the past 4 days.  They ordered stool cultures and wanted us to see our Pediatrician to have the blisters cultured and Shelby was to re-start the antibiotic that she received from the Immediate Care doctor yesterday.  I was very disappointed to find that our Pediatrician was out sick today and her partner was not in.  So...that meant, back to Immediate Care!  ARGH!!!  Shortly after they opened at 5 p.m. we got there only to wait about an hour to be seen.  Once the doctor came in and looked at her he said "there is no fluid.  I cannot culture this."  I explained to him that the blisters had "waxed and waned" throughout the course of the day.  He then proceeded, with pictures, to try to tell me what a blister was.  I then lost it and explained to him (again) her history and that, yes, I knew quite well what a blister was.  At that point he asked - although I had already told him - who wanted us to come in.  I told him our GI and he proceeded to scoot out of the room before I blew up any more.  He came back in the room singing a different tune and said the GI did want the blisters cultured, even if he felt there was no fluid at the current time to get out of them.  Swabs were taken; he said he understood our medical worries and told me a family story involving (his?) child who had medical issues and all the time they spent in the hospital and walked us out telling us that God was with us.  I hate it that I had to get so insistant, but, as I told Shelby, this Mama Bear will do anything for her Baby Bears.  Anything.  Even if that means yelling at a doctor.  Sigh.  So now we wait and pray that nothing yucky comes back on her cultures AND that she does not wake with anything "new."


Tomorrow, we go to talk with the surgeon about her MRI results and surgery.  I pray that her surgery is not delayed because of this skin "stuff."  Shelby also gets to see her Dr. Jill who I am sure she'll have an earful for.  Especially after seeing Mama Bear get so fired up tonight.


In 2 weeks, Scott and I will be sitting in the PICU next to our sweet Shelby.  I pray that she may have very little pain, good pain management, skilled doctors and nurses, patient parents and a speedy recovery.