Zeke's Infection

Obviously taking a night off for basketball and fun set me back a bit on the regular things in life and left me no time for blogging. Today I'm heading to Sioux Falls for Zeke's orthopedic appointment. We got smart and scheduled his and the baby's for the same day. They don't see the same doctor but the appointments are both with the Children's Hospital & Rehab so we were able to get the appointments scheduled back to back.
.
On a negative note, Zeke has some kind of infection. It started out as a runny nose. Then the area under his nose got very raw, which is not unusual for his nose when it is wiped a lot. Then I noticed an area on his knee looked really puffy. I asked both of his physical therapists to check it out and both said they weren't sure but to have the SF doctor check it out. The next day, the area around his nose was kind of crusty and the area around his knee was really puffy. The entire knee area was red and warm. Which is a big red flag for infection in my mind. I immediately steralized a needle and poked the puffy spot. Not to be overly disgusting, but tons of puss gushed out as soon as I poked it. Once I had most of it out, I wiped it down with rubbing alcohol. I'm thinking impetigo and it somehow got transfered from his face to his knee by scratching an open sore. It's really hard to keep Zeke from picking at his scabs.

So yesterday, I called his regular pediatrician in town and they were able to get him in to the clinic in 10 minutes. I guess they were a bit concerned too! She took a culture of the area around his knee. She'll call me with the results in 3 days. They're hoping it's not a staph infection because that can easily progress into the bone. She gave me a prescription for a strong antibiotic he'll take orally, a cream that we apply topically to his nose and his knee and then they gave him two shots of some pretty potent stuff to try to get a jump on knocking out the infection. He took it pretty well but later he kept telling everyone that he didn't want to be "shocked anymore". One good thing is that Zeke isn't really in any pain over the whole thing, other than the shots. He seems to have such a high pain tolerance.

The Sioux Falls appointments begin at 8:30am this morning and we're taking Zeke, Taylor, the baby and the baby's mom so I'd better get going!