Not the post I had planned...

I had planned to write out my baby toddler girls 18 month post, but apparently her 18 month birthday was not meant to be uneventful.

Starting a couple of months ago, I felt this little bitty bump right outside of Keevia's diaper on her inner left thigh. I thought it was a swollen lymph node, and brought it up my chiropractor. She assured me it wasn't a lymph node, but was most likely a cyst of some kind. She mentioned that if it changed in shape or size to bring it up to the pediatrician.

We took Keevia in almost a month ago for what we thought was pink eye. Turns out it wasn't, but while we were there I brought up the spot on her leg. She looked at it and said it was possibly a cyst or a boil, and said exactly what our chiropractor said -- to let her know if it changed in shape or size.

Around two weeks ago, it started getting red and growing. In a matter of days it quadrupled in size. I called last Thursday (not two days ago, a week and two days ago) and left a message for the pedi, she was out of town for the holiday, so I figured I wouldn't have a response right away. On Easter I had a doctor in our church look at it. She agreed that it was probably a boil, and encouraged us to put prescription strength antibiotic cream on it, and to take hot hot baths and let her soak. So we did.

On Monday, the pediatrician called and spoke to me, and ended up calling in a prescription for Bactrim. Due to a ton of reasons, it was late Tuesday afternoon when we got it filled. We started it Tuesday afternoon.

From Tuesday to Thursday the spot didn't change much at all. It KIND of looked like it might be coming to a head, but hadn't yet. I called the pediatrician on Thursday because she said it needed to be looked at if it hadn't gotten better on a couple of days of the antibitoic. I didn't want it to get suddenly worse over the weekend. I got an appointment for Friday morning.

I slept late Friday, and ended up not eating breakfast (or feeding Keevia) before we went to the appointment. After looking at it, we were informed that Keevs would need to have it lanced, and that she would have to be under general anesthesia. Our Pediatrician asked me if I wanted her to be seen in our hometown, a local town, or in Lexington. I chose Lexington. She then said she'd go call some doctors.

I tried to pull myself together at this point, as she called the doctors. I did NOT want surgery for my baby. I started planning the week in my head, trying to figure out logistics. The pediatrician came back in and told us she'd spoken to someone at the UK Children's Hospital, and if we left right away and got her down there, she could have surgery that evening and then stay over to the next day. And to only give her clear fluids from there on out.

Holy. Crap. Surgery TODAY? Leave NOW?

I panicked. I started sobbing. I sobbed all the way home. Then I put my big girl panties on and started packing. We packed for overnight, and packed movies, toys and books for the babe.

We made it to the hospital, and the fact that I hadn't fed my kid breakfast actually paid off. She was able go into surgery around 4:30.

I'm not going to lie. That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. KNOWING that she was going to scream as they took her away from me and that they were taking her into a strange environment. That killed me. I think I would have been okay if I had been able to hold her as they put her to sleep... but knowing that they were scooping her and running? Killed me. KILLED ME. I sobbed.

Carl and I prayed together before leaving the holding room. We were told that the anesthesia would take longer to administer and come out of than the actual procedure would take. The only reason they knocked her out was because of how little she is, and that it was actually less traumatic (for her, MUCH more traumatic for Mommy).

We went to the waiting room, and 10 minutes later we got a call that they'd started the surgery. Then, about 10-15 minutes later we were called to the consult room. The Pediatric surgeon came in and said that it went perfectly, and we could go to the recovery room as soon as the nurses gave us the go ahead.

They ended up having to go in in two places on her leg and "break up" the infection. He (the surgeon) told us he does 300 of these surgeries a year. THREE HUNDRED. And that 95% of those are MRSA. Apparently a traditional poke and drain doesn't work with MRSA because MRSA looks like honeycomb. It actually invades the fat tissue, and has to be broken up. That's why they have to knock the kiddo out. He expected that that's what hers would look like.

Thankfully, with hers it was mainly liquid pus and a few small pockets of the honeycomb looking stuff... so he isn't 100% sure it was MRSA. They sent out cultures. They left a drain in her leg, which is basically a large piece of rubber that is tied at the top. We have to give her three hot baths a day and move that rubber band back and forth to continue to break up any infection. We go back to have the drain removed in 10 days.

Carl and I were able to go down to recovery. When we walked in she was stretched out on the little crib hospital bed, snuggled up to a nurse. She wasn't really crying, but she wasn't awake yet either. They had told us she would be mad. Carl sat in the rocker and held her first, but that only lasted about a minute until she opened her eyes and saw Mommy. He got up and handed her to me, and her hand immediately went down my shirt. It was kind of cool to watch her pulse rate slowly drop as she calmed down! She woke well, without any crying whatsoever and drained down some apple juice. By the time it came to remove her IV, we used Carl's iPod touch to play Blues Clues, and she totally didn't pay ANY attention to them pulling it out! She only got mad when the nurse had to hold pressure on the needlepoke!

We're home, and she's doing very well. We didn't end up having to spend the night... but came home! She ate some Macaroni and Cheese at Cracker Barrel on the way home. She hasn't had an appetite all day, and has only eaten a little hummus and Lil'Crunchies.. but as I write this she's helping Mamaw eat some Ravioli. She ran a low grade (99.2) temperature before her nap, and has a little gunky cough (a side-effect of the anesethia I think) but has been playing well.

Not the 18-month post (or birthday!) I wanted her to have (She was 18-months old yesterday!) but hopefully this will keep her from getting sick! She never ran a fever before the surgery and except for favoring the leg and getting MAD when you touched it you wouldn't know she had it.

Please be in prayer that the cultures are normal, and that we manage to keep it broken up.