Scary Times: Part 4

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Where were we? Oh yes - everything was better. We were literally driving in the sunshine, discussing how amazing it felt to have the worry taken off of our shoulders. (Is the worry really ever gone though? Really?)

Later that week, we noticed Lucy's groin area was still swollen. We reassured each other that the surgeon, Dr. A, said that it was normal. We were to only watch for a fever and redness. Neither were prevalent; so, there weren't any problems. Right? Right.

As days continued, Lucy was still acting completely normal. She was perhaps even a bit more active and happy than usual. However, we kept our eyes on the swelling. It was obviously more swollen, because it had moved from just her groin area, into her right labia a little bit. Again, he told us this would happen.

On Saturday morning we decided to take a trip to the pumpkin patch. My mom and Alex were going to come too. I was on the phone with my mom when Heath called to me.

"Cori, it's a lot more swollen."

I didn't expect it to see what I saw. It was alarmingly swollen. I say the word 'alarmingly' because everyone kept trying to down-play it to me when I would describe it to them. Once they saw it, their reaction was, "Whoa!" I was simply shocked. I asked Heath, when he changed her diaper this morning was it that bad? He said no. It was almost like it had just puffed up like crazy in just a few hours.

I told my mom about it and told her I was going to call Children's. I had the number for Dr. A still on my phone. However, I knew he had been on call the weekend before, so I wouldn't be getting a hold of him.  Another doctor answered. I introduced myself and Lucy's case. He was not familiar. That part was kind of frustrating. I told him about the swelling and used the word 'alarmingly'. His reaction was blah. As long as she doesn't have a fever and it isn't read, then no big deal. I'm paraphrasing of course.

I got off the phone, looked at her groin again. That can NOT be normal I told myself.

Heath and I thought that maybe we could give her a bath. Dr. A had said that the soap and water was good for her incision. So, she soaked in the tub, playing, for about 20 or 30 minutes. Afterward, it looked...well, almost worse. It now looked a little purplish. Not quite red though.

I thought to myself, if only I could talk to our doctor, Dr. B. Maybe if I called the hospital, they could contact her for me. It was worth a try. I called the hospital and she was there! She was only in for a couple of hours that day and I managed to catch her. (Thank you to whoever was having a baby that day!)

After I told her about it, she suggested that we just make a trip into the E.R.; she wanted to take a look at it. I was still optimistic. I asked my mom (who was also shocked when she saw it) and Alex to ride along. After the hospital trip, we would head to the pumpkin patch.

We arrived at the E.R. Dr. B had us just sit in the waiting room, so we wouldn't be charged for coming into the E.R. How nice was that? We waited about ten minutes. I was nervous. I sat on a steely, diner-type chair against the wall and watched my mom play with Lucy and Alex. She was always so calm and collected in these situations. I couldn't gage Heath. He sat just to the right of me, watching too. He didn't have a nervous tic like I did. My eyes were drawn to my shaking, right-foot. It was crossed over my left leg and my nerves caused it to move erratically side to side. I immediately put both of my feet on the floor and grabbed the chair. I needed to get myself under control.

Dr. B arrived. As soon as we got Lucy's diaper off, she said, "Oh, yeah. Let me call Children's."

She exited the room. We put Lucy's diaper and pants back on. I asked Heath, "Are we headed back to Omaha?"

His reply, with a regretful face, was, "Sounds like it."

Dr. B came back in after speaking to the same doctor I had called just an hour before hand. They decided that since Lucy was acting normal, we could wait to head back up to Omaha until Monday morning at 9 am. Dr. B thought that the abscess had come back and it was more than likely staph again. Finally, she told us that she thought that the surgeon would have to "go in" this time to clean it out. We took that for what it was worth and didn't ask a lot of questions.

We could take Lucy home, not to the pumpkin patch, and watch her. We couldn't give her pain medicine, because we needed to monitor her for a fever. If she had a fever or didn't act like herself, then we needed to go to the Children's E.R. again. I was scared; but, Dr. B was right. Lucy was completely acting normal. She was having so much fun. I knew though that the next two days and nights would be hell on my nerves.

We picked up Lucy's prescription for another anitbiotic (her fourth) at Walmart. She ran around like a maniac - typical Lucy. It was comforting. It wasn't until that evening, that Lucy changed. Ironically enough, when the Cornhuskers went into the locker room for half-time against Ohio State, down by 21 points, Lucy really started to act oddly. We were all feeling a bit queasy...but Lucy was more than just disgusted with the Huskers' performance. She seemed really tired. She didn't want to walk anymore and she had a temperature of 100 degrees. Heath and I decided to take Lucy to Omaha. We knew that we would never feel comfortable about being home and we wouldn't be able to sleep well knowing that she had a low-grade temperature. After packing some bags, we got out of the house around 10:30 pm.

The drive up I just kept asking Heath, "You don't think they will send us home do you?"

I mean, they didn't send us up there right away the first time. Would they dismiss us this time too?

He assured me that we would be staying the night. Lucy slept on the drive, while we listened to the last few minutes of the Husker game. This trip was much different. I wasn't panicking. I was nervous; but, I knew what to anticipate. I was a pro by now at the processes of Children's - right? Well...that is what I kept telling myself.

We got to the E.R. Nobody had a familiar face; it was a whole new staff. We checked in and were immediately ushered to the first check-up room. Wow - that was a change!  The nurse looked her over. She now had a temperature of 102 degrees. I said aloud, "Good thing we left when we did then. I'm glad we came in."

The E.R. nurse said he would get us a room quicker, since Lucy had been there just a few weeks before. And, that he did! We sat in the waiting room for maybe five minutes. I was much more pleased with our experience this time. We entered the E.R. room. I searched for familiar faces at the nurses' station - none.

The E.R. process was similar. I was doing really well. I had already talked myself through it. I knew that she would have to have blood drawn. I knew that they would need to insert an IV. I knew she wouldn't be able to drink. I was prepared to hold her down. I was not, however, prepared for the nurse to poke around in Lucy's arm for a solid two minutes looking for a vein. It was like watching Lucy get tortured. Heath was having a rough time with it, considering his light-headedness. I was annoyed and felt so bad for Lucy. I actually looked at Heath once, huffed, and shook my head.

"START OVER!" I wanted to yell.

We were finally taken to a room upstairs. We had to explain our story another 20 times. This time our story was much longer....well, as you can imagine. I had to go over parts one through three of our scary journey. I tried to remember all of her antibiotics' names, our family history of illnesses, and the many other facts about Lucy's behavior, eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping behavior, etc.

Since they knew Lucy had staph last time, everyone had to wear face masks, disposable gowns, and gloves in the room with us. Heath and I just stood there in street clothes, apparently taking in the infection - ? I figured they didn't want to spread it all over the hospital.

We were finally left alone to sleep at 2:45 am.

They started Lucy on antibiotics. We would have another CT scan in the morning. No one could tell for sure yet if this was staph again. We didn't even know if this was the same abscess or a different one yet.  Time would tell.

- To Be Continued -