Crazy terrible first week of summer. It started with a fun time at Golden Ponds
splashing around trying to catch pollywogs and ended up with an overnight stay
at Children's Hospital.
Tuesday, May 31st.
It was a lovely day on the first week of summer vacation and Jadeyn's
buddy Finn invited us to go on a bike ride.
Jadeyn, Finn, Jen and I rode out to the Golden Ponds to see what
critters we could catch. Last summer
these two caught several huge pollywogs and were so excited to see if they
could catch some this year too. They
played all through the edges of the pond, pouncing and splashing. There is a stone pathway that cuts right down
the middle of the pond and they went up and down it jumping from rock to
rock. We had been there a little over an
hour when the boys went leaping towards the shore. Suddenly, we heard Jadeyn scream and begin to
wail in pain. The last few stones before
the shore were under water and slippery with algae. He had slipped in the algae and fell in
between the granite stones and into the water.
The rough rock had gouged a nasty cut into his shin allowing all the
pond water into his wound. It really had
to hurt terribly, but he allowed me to rinse the wound with my water bottle
enough for us to get back on our bikes and head home. We only had about 20 minutes to deal with the
cut before we had to pile Newt into the car for a vet appointment. I cleaned the wound in the sink and scrubbed
it as best I could, bandaged it up and off we went. After the vet, I had Jadeyn take a shower to
further clean up. By afternoon, he
really didn't want to go to karate and since the cut was still oozing, I
thought it was a good idea to skip it too.
Wed June 1st Jadeyn had a pretty fretful night and by
morning he didn't want to walk on it at all.
We thought that he should be feeling better by now and wondered if he
was being a little wimpy about it.
Jadeyn and I went to the store to pick out bandages because we though
butterfly bandages would help hold the wound shut. We had considered stitches, but honestly, he cried
whenever we mentioned it and I felt the cut was borderline. By evening, he wouldn't walk on it at
all. We told him that he had been
sitting around long enough and needed some activity, so we took him for a bike
ride to get his legs moving. We went all
over the neighborhood and he tried not to complain.
Thurs June 2nd Another fretful night. He joined us at 1am and had a fever of
100.5. He slept in the bed with Kevin
and I slept on the floor. By morning we
were so worried about him being in pain that we started suspecting that maybe
he had broken the bone. We made an appt
with the pediatrician for 9:30am. Around
8am, we looked at the wound and it was hot and red. At the peds office, we unwrapped the wound
and it was obvious: it was really infected.
There was an area around the wound that pretty much took up his whole
shin that was red and inflamed and fevered, and there were red streaks leading
towards his ankle. Oh no. It had happened so fast. The doctor didn't even bother to mess with it
and told us that she was sending us to Children's Hospital immediately for IV
antibiotics. The danger is that the cut
is directly on the shin bone and infection can go straight into the bone in
that area. We were so scared. The doc arranged everything for us and we
raced home. She had mentioned that there
was a chance we might have to stay overnight, so I grabbed Puck the Penguin, a
blanket, jacket, lots of snacks and books and we were off. The whole time we were keeping Kevin informed
by text.
Children's treated us so well and Jadeyn was pretty excited
to ride in a wheelchair when I wasn't carrying him. By this point, he couldn't walk at all. The pediatrician was right to send us there,
all the terrible suspicions were right: he was severely infected. They marked the area of inflammation and it
was huge, puss was oozing out of his two day old wound and he was in pain. They took him for an xray to look for bone
involvement, took two vials of blood and began to numb the wound for
debriding. Jadeyn was a trooper and put
up with all the needles and prodding and wrapping, and doctor and nurse
visits. But, he was rewarded with an
unlimited supply of movie choices and getting to be pampered all day long! Kevin joined us in the evening and we all
spend the night in his hospital room. He
is our one and only, we weren't going to leave his side.
Friday June 3 - Jadeyn was anxious to get home since
he was feeling so much better, but we had to wait for one more round of
antibiotics and the doctors approval before we could be released. We didn't get to go home until 1pm. What an
ordeal, but we are so grateful for modern medicine and a healthy boy who could
make it through this. We realized our
mistakes: dirty pond water--don't clean the wound yourself; dirty wound--never
attempt to close it with a butterfly bandage; a cut that causes pain when walking
could be infected--don't delay in getting help!
Kevin told Jadeyn how sorry he felt for not taking him in sooner, and
Jadeyn replied: I forgive you dad.
June 4-9 -Over
the next few days, the wound went through lots of different stages including
one that landed us back with the pediatrician just to make sure everything
looked okay. It was a nasty wound and it
is going to leave quite the battle wound.
Timing wise, it was a bummer of a way to start the summer, but a
blessing to have it happen with enough time to heal before our major trips!
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