Infection

Since Friday night was such a late night (we saw Wicked) for Chris and me, we slept in on Saturday morning.  The kids got in a few Saturday morning cartoons and Kiah made some toast for everyone.  At one point Eli came in saying he needed a band-aide for his knee.  Figuring he must have fallen down and scraped it I cracked my eyes open to look at his knee, but didn't see anything.  But apparently I looked at the wrong spot on his knee, because later that morning as I was helping him get dressed I found a rather yucky looking abrasion on the side of his knee... and it wasn't hard to tell that it was infected in a major way.

Saturday was already a packed day, but we had to get Eli to the doctor.  He wouldn't bend his leg at all and was refusing to walk.  So Chris took him to the walk-in clinic while I took the girls to our first outing for the day.  They put Eli on an antibiotic, Bactrim for all my medical friends out there.  Since Eli wasn't feeling so well, and I accidentally took the wrong meds and knocked myself out for several hours, we skipped our second outing.  

Sunday it took me all day to get Eli to let me pin him down so I could take a look at his knee.  His knee looked so much worse.  He was walking even less. Eli has a very high pain threshold, but he had apparently reached the limit.   I know that sometimes infections can get worse before they get better, but after Chris' experience with an infection in his leg and the concern over MRSA, we decided to take him back to the doctor.  Of course the doctor he had seen the day before was closed, so we had to take him to a different walk-in clinic, but this one does specialize in Pediatrics.  (Although thinking about it now, maybe we should have taken him to the wound care clinic that Chris was eventually referred too, hmm, oh well)  At this clinic they decided to drain the wound.  I am glad Chris took him for several reasons, the first being he can empathize with having an infected wound drained, and Chris is MUCH stronger than I am and therefore could restrain Eli.  They also decided to switch his antibiotic.  (he is now on Clindamycin)

Apparently Clyndamycin tastes awful.  The pharmasist even told us they weren't sure how much the added flavoring (which we did pay to add) would even do much to help.   The poor kid has to take 2 teaspoons 3x/day for 10 days.  So far not so good, but I can't say it is awful.  I do have to bribe Eli with chocolate, although after his last dose he did tell me he wouldn't take anymore.  Too bad he has 25 more doses to go!  Also, the medicine came with a HUGE warning to only take this antibiotic for serious infections because it can cause colitis for up to 3 months after finishing the antibiotic.  GREAT!  Well, hopefully we will be spared that lovely side effect.

here is a picture of his knee about 24 hrs after draining.  We had to trick him into taking off the band-aide. so we could get a picture.  It actually does look so much better.   He still spends most of the day holding and protecting his knee.  I kept him home from school yesterday, and we skipped the park today.  We will see about school tomorrow.