Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Staph...

Yesterday I posted on Facebook that we'd had an Emergency appointment with a Dermatologist for Beanie and I've gotten a few questions wondering how she's doing. Turns out she has a pretty good staph infection that until yesterday was just spreading...it started on the hand where she usually gets eczema and has spread to the other hand, her inner elbow and yesterday up into her hairline.

On Monday, I called to make an appointment for the Dermatologist (Thursday), and for our Naturopath who got me in right away. The Naturopath thought there may be an underlying parasite issue, but that I needed to get to a dermatologist because whatever was on top was WAY beyond what he was comfortable treating and he was glad to know the appointment had been made. I love that my Naturopath knows his own limits and makes sure I know it...no "God" complex in that one.

When Beanie woke with a spot of this in her hair yesterday (Tuesday) I called the Dermo and said, "Either get me in or I'm headed to ER"...so we got in at 10am. She was NOT particularly friendly or helpful...she took one look at this MASSIVE rash and said "oh that's infected, it's just contact dermatitis" ...during the 4-5 minutes she spent with us, she didn't want to hear anything, not that Beanie had eczema, not that she had an active fever and had for 2 days, not that she had been in a swim meet with a bunch of kids 9 days before, but hadn't been in the pool since...not when I noticed it getting WORSE than standard eczema...not what I'd tried...as a matter of fact to everything I said, she would interrupt and say, "I'm sure that aggravated it"...the best example was me saying, "She was in a swim meet" the doctor interrupts saying, "I'm sure that aggravated it" and me saying "But she hasn't BEEN in the pool in over a week"...but she did it with the cream we've always used for her eczema, the band-aids etc.

At some point she FINALLY said the word "infection" again...and I jumped on it, "What type of infection, bacterial or viral" and she FINALLY said, "Probably staph". I'm sorry, "probably staph"? Like it's no big deal this thing that is taking over my kid's body. She said that she was prescribing a heavy antibiotic but no real explanation of anything. I said, "Are there side effects I should watch for?" she said "It could make her sun-sensitive". I said, "Should I give her Probiotics?" she said "That's probably not necessary"...WHAT? Anyone else think that sets off an alarm? I asked her when I should look for there to be a change for the better? She said 3-4 days (this is VERY important in hind-site) and that she would want to see us in 2 weeks. (another VERY important thing.)

So she gave us this prescription and left the room...at the reception desk it occurred to me there were 3 prescriptions and no explanation of timing or wound care and I still didn't know if I should put band-aids or gauze on her so I made the nurse call her back. She said that I could and then left again.

Well I got home. I was perplexed. I do NOT just give my kids stuff cause the doctor says I should, and ESPECIALLY a doctor that didn't even WEIGH my kid before handing me an antibiotic that by all "google" accounts is a liver killer. So because I am who I am...I called my most beloved Pediatrician.

Dr. B has proven herself once again.

She actually WEIGHED Beanie, took her temperature and took a scraping to send to the lab to confirm what on EARTH this is (very scary to a little girl who hurts so much, but not painful because Dr. B is awesome-oh, and not something the Dermo bothered to do) and talked us through the entire protocol...including the use of this scary antibiotic...EXACTLY what to look for with side effects...how to clean and bandage the wounds because make no mistake, Beanie is WOUNDED right now...how to lessen the chances of anyone else picking it up...and how to lessen Bean's chances of the after effects of this kind of antibiotic.

And get this...she INSISTS on seeing us in two days...wanna see why?

I'm only going to show you one part of the rash...the most DRAMATIC part...this is her elbow on Sunday afternoon and again on Tuesday morning...just to give you a clue how fast this is spreading...



It didn't start looking worse than her standard eczema until about Thursday and it stayed on that one hand in that localized spot until Saturday. Once it started moving there was no slow down...with it moving THIS fast waiting 3-4 days to call the Dermo MIGHT just be too late to save her face. But obviously the Dermatologist wasn't interested, based on her answers to my question.

What's more, I gave the prescription to Dr. B just to tell me how to use it. She said, "You know what, you couldn't have even gotten this filled...there is no dosage information on it." Well of course there wasn't, they didn't weigh her, how could they figure dosage?

So I've just kept the prescription for my records. I'm not sure that I'll ever do anything with it, but I'm praying about it. I don't want to do anything right now, because I'm mad. And the reality is that the Dermo DID prescribe the right drug so technically she was right...but it was useless to me until someone was able to explain what to do with it and could dose it properly.

As for Beanie. She doesn't feel good and she's still running a fever so she is NOT BETTER yet. But nothing looks worse for the first time since Saturday and the rash on her elbow looks darker, like it's trying to scab and her hands are not quite as swollen. We have an appointment with Dr. B Thursday afternoon. Maybe the scraping will be back but at the very least we should be able to see if we are on the right path BEFORE the weekend...an important feature for all worried Mommas everywhere.

So that's the update for the time being.

Please keep us in your prayers...

See ya around...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're keeping good thoughts & Praying...

TryonMom27 said...

well, you can pretty much guess what I am going to say. It's time to file a compliant, if you ask me. No dr in their right mind should ever treat a patient like that, especially a child. And the fact that she didn't NOR did she give a dosage doesn't mean she was right. It simply means she guessed right and was able to make it to her lunch appointment on time. GRRRR!!!! And Chris keeps asking me why i won't go to a dr for my back. Mostly because I am afraid a running into crappy people like this. BTW, Dr. B ROCKS!!!!! We saw her last week for well babies. I thought we were seeing Miss Christie. We'll be praying for Sarah and wisdom for you in what to do with the dr situation. I don't think I would let it just go. This is irresponsible. So I will pray that God will give you wisdom. :) Let me know if there is anything you need.

Amber in the City said...

How aggravating. So sorry Beanie. At the very least, I'd want my $$ back for the derm visit. GRR

CrossView said...

Goodness! As a mom I would have definitely been concerned! As for the doc, I'm so glad you followed your instincts!