Weird bump = staph )-:

What a traumatic morning. If you have a queasy stomach, you may not want to read this... I'm not giving every detail as I don't really want to remember all of it.

Things to remember even if you don't read on - if a sore isn't getting better or you have a temperature go get medical assistance. Staph can be life threatening if not taken care of, but usually very easy to get rid of if caught soon enough. Staph is really common here in Hawaii and not uncommon else where. It lives on 1/3 of human's skin or in the nose. It presents it's self in different ways - but if left untreated can get in the blood and cause permanent damage or death.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000863.htm

I think I last wrote when it was still just weird. Thursday afternoon we took her to a pediatrician who said he thought it was indeed staph. He gave us a prescription for antibiotic ointment, instructed us to use hot compresses to bring the infection to a head and said we needed to push the infection out. He said it was possible we'd need to bring her back in on Monday to have it drained. Friday morning pus came to the surface and we pushed it and a little came out. At lunch time more came out and then before bed it looked real nasty and we even got a bit of a hard core piece out. Poor baby, to squeeze on it meant having to holding her down. About two inches around the sore got really swollen - but it was really difficult to tell what was general swelling and if we got the infection out. Yesterday it stayed about the same all day - but her croupy cough got worse, she had a 99.1 temp and she puked on our way to the Paniolo parade. We turned around and spent the day at home. More compresses, no changes, but she start limping every now and then. After bath, I pulled her bed into our room as I wanted to monitor her through the night. It didn't look different, but a fever would mean that we had lost the battle. I had made up my mind that we would go to urgent care in the morning regardless of a fever as it looked so red and angry. I woke throughout the night and felt her head. At 3 she crawled in with me and slept on my arm. At 5 I woke up and felt her and she was burning up. At first I thought (hoped) it was because she was tucked close to me. It woke her up and she said "Autumn naked." I knew I was wrong and got the thermometer. 100.5 - not good. I got the Tylenol, gave it to her and we headed to the living room. From 5-8am we watched movies and did puzzles and her temp went down to 98.5. We got ready to go and arrived at urgent care at 9:05 and were 3rd in line )-: We finally got in at 10:30 and her temp was now 102. I thought I might have to beg for antibiotics but the doctor looked very concerned. He decided it needed drained to get the infection out. I was relieved but also realized the moment was going to be very traumatic for all of us. He needed to put local anesthetic in, get a sample and then drain it. I held Autumn's head on my arm, leaned over her, holding her down and singing "He's got the whole world in his hands" in her ear. Aaron held her legs down and it took about 7 minutes for the whole procedure. I'm not sure she could feel much, but knew what was going on and cried/screamed the whole time. Poor Autumn and the poor child in the waiting room. He got a whole bunch of pus out, cleaned her us and bandaged it. We got a prescription for sulfa antibiotics, gauze, tape and instructions to change the dressing when wet. She fell asleep on my shoulder before we even got out of the exam room and slept for 4 hours. I did get her awake enough to take children's advil and her antibiotic when we got home. Every time I checked her temp it had come down. Now she is eating and playing and just very sore. We have a check up appointment tomorrow and hopefully it is looking better and responding to the medicine. Please Lord! We are ready to be done with this.