Ugh.

"We interrupt this blog about travel approval woes, to bring you a medical crisis."


Aria is our NON special needs child, who happens to have lots of weird issues.

Lots.

Hives at random, unexplained times, facial swelling, rashes of unknown origins, huge reactions to bug bites, and terrible allergies and asthma to name just a few.

For example, when she was 2, she went to bed happy as a lark, woke up at 11 PM with BOTH feet hugely swollen- another allergic reaction we thought, so we gave her benadryl. By the time we got to the Dr (when they opened we were waiting) she couldn't stand the swelling was so bad. She apparently, to the best of anyone's guess. got an infection from a new pair of shoes that rubbed her feet. She couldn't walk for 3 weeks and it was touch and go for a long hospital stay.

WARNING:New shoes can cause staph- lysol accordingly.

With that are her background, you can understand why I FREAKED OUT this week when I saw a red, silver dollar sized lump on the inside of her knee.

With a scary deja-vu in my mind, we rushed to the Dr, and it was uncertain if she had a bad reaction to an insect bite, or the dreaded infection word. She marked the borders and told me if it spread past them to give her the antibiotic she prescribed.

We barely made it home and the redness had spread, so I filled her medication, gave her a dose and sent her to bed, CONFIDENT that she would be much better in the morning. I guess I blocked the part in my mind about the narrowly missed hospital visit for an un-named infection that was super-stubborn when she was two?!?

Surprise!!! She woke up and it was half way up her leg.
Another day, another rushed trip to the Dr.

So today we have another high-powered antibiotic in our arsenal. The Dr has no idea if it's staph, strep or the dreaded MRSA. We are treating her for all of those in hopes to get this under control.

And his theory is- it all started as a bug bite.

How the heck am I ever going to let this child out the front door????

We had to cancel all our weekend plans, and are laying very low this weekend, watching her like a hawk, watching the margins we have drawn and re-drawn on her leg and hoping we can kick this so a hospital visit is not necessary.

So far, it looks like it is heading in the right direction.

And all those who know me are having a good chuckle. I lysol my house regularly, use bleach-wipes on everything and am a fanatic about proper and frequent hand-washing. They wear insect repellant, and I stick a dryer sheet in their clothes for additional protection to ward off the dreaded mosquitos.We take immune boasting vitamins, drink Kefir for the probiotics, and I always put antibiotic cream on every bump and scrape.
I am VIGILANT, I really am. And suffer ridiculous teasing from friends and family for my neurotic cleaning habits.

And MY CHILD is the one who gets not one, but TWO of these infections in 4 years.

I am re-considering my tactics. I think I will let her roll in the mud with pigs, and then eat lunch with her hands unwashed. It couldn't make things worse than they already are.

Maybe it will give her some added protection my sterilization has not????

Clearly, my sanitized home is not working.

Now excuse me, while I re-check the margins on her leg, apply more antibiotic cream and lysol another room.

Old habits die hard.