I'm Back

[debkor]

Hey!!!

Boy has it been a long time.  I had some ruff times with my little one.  Everything happened at once.  My little guy got sick (which is a long  story) and my computer went nuts at the same time and I had only time to take care of my little one first along with knocking heads with doctors until they finally got it together And he is better Thank God!  But long story (he had MRSA) I'll tell you more about this nightmare later.  Just wanted to say I missed you all and didn't want you to think I went POOF!.

I'll talk to you all soon I have to run out.

Love Deb

[Ami]

Welcome Back, Deb!!!!!
Sorry to hear about your son.It must be a very traumatic  situation for all of you. My heart goes out to you. I am not familiar with the condition, but I bet that some people here are and ,hopefully, could offer some help.I will keep him and you in my prayers.
Look forward to seeing your posts again, Deb.                   Love to you,  Ami


((((((((((((Deb)))))))))

[lighter]

Hey deb.

Don't know what MRSA is but I'm glad it sounds under control right now.

[Leah]

Warm welcome back (((( Deb ))))

MRSA as I understand, is quite serious, and I am so glad to know that your little one is better now.

Looking forward to hearing from you again, soon.

Love, Leah

[debkor]

Oh I missed you all so much and thanks everyone.  I have to go through all the post to catch up.

Yeah MRSA is serious and it was all over the news at one point.  It's the staff infection that can be antibiotic resistant.  It sounds like Mercer when you say it. 

My son plays football and in August while in training he got some funky looking thing on his calf.  I thought spider bite but the trainer said ring worm.  He was treated with cream.  It started to look better but he kept saying my lump is getting bigger.  I checked and said no it's healing.  About a week later my gut made me stop and say what lump are you talking about?  He's at a very modest and embarrassing age for me to look anywhere near his privates.  He lifted his boxers so I could see his groin and I just about fainted.  His lymphnode was the size of a lemon.  I grabbed him and went to the hospital.  I kept pointing to his calf and could it be infection?  They did all kinds of test like  Lyme, mono and I forget what else.  They seemed mind boggled and asked if I  had cats.  I do. They then said cat scratch fever and there is nothing they can do for it. The body (immune system will take care of it but it's a very very long long time to go away and see a SURGEON.

I went to the regular pead the next day and he sent me to the surgeon.  Surgeon said oh ya!  This is typical and it is the cat scratch and I never had to see him again.  So now I'm happy.  So many things went through my mind.  Cat Scratch I could live with.  I looked it up and it said it's very common.  A cat (kitten) up to a year old can carry this virus and pass it to humans.  Most people would not even know they had it because their immune system would take care of it.  People with a weakened immune system may take longer and yes the lymphnode was huge in the picture but not life threatening.  Now in-between I keep checking in with the Ped and the lymph node was if not bigger no change.  They tell me to be patient it's a long long long time to go down.  Ok I'll have to trust them.  A week later he gets this large pimple looking thing.  I call the Dr and back we go.  He looks at it and says I don't think it's anything to worry about.  A week after this there is another one and it's oozing and looks like a volcano.  Now I'm hysterical and take him back to his ped but he was in an emergency so his partner saw him.  His partner is now very angry and flipping his medical report saying who said he had cat scratch fever and where it the test that said he has it.  They (A) never tested him for that or Staff and (B) I never knew they had a test to determine Cat Scratch.  Now the nurses are looking very serious and the Dr so I'm trying not to panic but I could read their faces.  He took a sample of the infection and tested it for cat scratch and it came back negative.  He went out and called the hospital for the Surgeon on Staff to do surgery right away.  Now this has been ongoing and it is Oct now.  Now my son is hysterical and I'm trying not to get hysterical and I'm not happy with the surgeon who was going to operate or the hospital.
It was not his original surgeon or hospital and I'm saying OH MY GOD!! PLEASE do I do it or NOT. The surgeon wasn't even a ped surgeon.  My prayers were answered cause that was a tuff call for me Who do I trust!!  Is my gut right?  Will they do more damage?
They were going to take out the lump and around it.  It would have been probably almost half his leg yet they couldn't tell me what he had (even with a sample of the infection).  It was just sounding nuts to me.  The surgeon was arrogant and didn't want to be called in and said he would do it in the morning in his office.  OK Thank you God for this arrogant surgeon.  My prayers were answered.  They sent him home with antibiotics (Bactrim).  Now I give his regular Pead a call that I'm out of there and taking him to the hospital if need be ANOTHER STATE because no one does not know what the other is talking about and I'm not going to take a chunk of his leg UNTILL they could tell me what it was.  They said they could not until they removed it.  I wasn't buying it.   He calmed me and begged me not to let so many people deal with him that my gut was right and it could be very very dangerous and only specialist and the best should deal with him.  Meanwhile he contacts an infectious disease Pead and explains all I have written. The infectious disease Dr puts him on a different medicine. I did my own research and though this kid has MRSA and why are they not saying it.  They send me back to the surgeon and he says he thinks he had MRSA and Cat scratch and will not operate as of yet.  They kept him on the medicine for 30 days and the lump had started to go down.  He went back to the regular pead for a check up and he was not giving him any more meds.  I was not a happy camper he wanted to see what was going to happen.  I was not willing too.
I took him to a children's hospital where children all over come too and finally!!!!! Finally!!!  We had a diagnosis.  MRSA and cat scratch.  Remember the lymph node and the size of course the poor kid was fighting two infections.  Meanwhile from August to Oct my son went with no medication and they wanted to remove the whole thing(lump, lymph node and who knows what else) and then name the infection.   And yes it started with his calf that I kept pointing out that was his first episode of MRSA he was on his second.  I believe it has been stopped (knock wood).  He now has to take a bath for a few months twice a week with equal parts of Clorox and put bactoban in his nose every night. They say MRSA like to colonize.  So far so good.  Oh and he never got any symptoms other then the infection on his leg.  No fever, no sickness thank god.  That is something they had feared. So my little kiddo must have some very strong immune system after all. 
But he never ever needed surgery and the infectious disease Dr. said they could have been able to tell what he had from the infections as a sample with out surgery. 

SO TRUST YOUR GUT FEELING about anything THIS TIME I DID and it paid off.
If it doesn't feel right then it's NOT.

Anyway, I so missed you and tried to use my cell to get on here.  My nerves were about shot and I so badly needed to ramble on here. 
All is good now.

Sorry this was so long.  I guess I'm making up for lost time.

Love ya all
deb

[lighter]

(((Deb and kiddo)))

How frightening an experience and it kept going and going and going.

Reminds us that docs are just practicing.... they never really know, they're giving it an educated guess.

::mentally smacking the ped, who screwed up with my oldest child's first ear ache, in the back of the head:::

Putz.

Ah hem....

::sending your son healing vibes to finish the healing process::

[Certain Hope]

Oh, Deb, what a nightmare! You must have been absolutely beside yourself.
A boy in our local school nearly lost his leg, as well, from contracting mrsa after breaking that leg... no idea how the infection got started, but this went on for months, as well, touch and go all the way. Thankfully, he's fine now, too.

You exercised your mom wisdom and had some powerful blessings going on in this case, just like this other young man and his family... and I'm so thankful for you and your son! Take good care.. and welcome back.

Carolyn

[Hopalong]

Deb, so glad you are a mother who respects her intuition.
You have saved your son a world of misery.

Thank heaven it seems to be recediing. MRSA is a nasty thing.

Please keep us posted, and please take care of yourself--some stress relief?

lots of love,
Hops

[debkor]

Hi Hops,


Oh yes I have some stress relief.  Ring Dings, peanut butter cups and my sons xbox 360 that we play together.  I'm addicted to a game called dead rising and spend time trying to kill zombies in a mall (lol).  I do occasionally when not being attacked by creatures look around the mall and try on clothes. 

We also play a game Rock Band.  That is lots of fun and I have a good time with my kids with this.  The whole family plays.
I usually am the singer and cannot sing to save my life.  They rate you and sometimes I lose fans, money and get kicked off stage.
(lol) thats when my kids kick me out of the band for real.

My son is looking good to date.  He still is healing but it's looking good.  It take so long to go completely away.  There are no signs of infection anymore I guess it's just a scar.  I am paranoid though.  I don't think I will be comfortable for quite some time.  But this shall pass as things always do.

It's so good to hear from you and everyone. 

I'm still catching up with things.  Seems to be lots of changes. 

Thank you Hop,Hope, Light, Leah, Iz and Ami for you thoughts, prayers and comforting words as always.

Love
Deb

[teartracks]

Hi debkor,

I really get into Sink Subs, the game.  It's pretty old and not high tech.  Don't ask me why I like it!  Glad to see someone else who plays what we think of as kids games.

tt