Saturday, March 10, 2012

Daniel's Immunization Debacle

So, Tuesday, I took all 3 boys in for well-child visits to see how much they weigh, how tall they are and if they needed any shots.  Well, Xander and Daniel did need shots.  Xander got 4 and Daniel had to get 2.  Poor Xander didn't know what was coming and was crying pretty hard but was able to be comforted pretty easily.  Thank GOD my mom came with us.  I would not have able to handle all of it on my own.

Daniel knew what was coming and so he was hiding under the chair in the room.  I had to pick the chair up and move it across the room to get him out from under it.  Then he wrestled with me really hard to get his pants down so they could give him his shots.  He had the last rounds of DTaP and Polio vaccines - 1 in each leg.  The doctor had a little bit of difficulty with his shot because Daniel wiggled a bit and the needle's plunger had a problem.  After he got the shots, he, of course, cried but he was back to himself pretty quickly.  When the doctor told him he was all done with his shots till he was 11, he was really happy.  No more shots for 6 years is good news!

Fast forward to Thursday morning.  We are up and getting ready to go to open gymnastics for the kids to play with our friends.  Daniel is itching himself- down there- so I asked him if he needed to go potty.  He said no, his leg was itchy.  So, I asked him if it was where he had his shot and he said yeah.  So, I had him pull his pants down and a huge red blotch ( the size of my fist) was there.  It was swollen and hard and hot to the touch and if I pushed on it, it hurt him.  I immediately called the doctor's office to see if we needed to bring him in or if I needed to worry about it.  I took 3 1/2 hours for the doctor to call me back.  When he did, he asked me to bring him in. 

After the doctor looked at his leg, he asked some questions and said he didn't think it could be an allergic reaction because he had already had the same shots 3 or 4 times before and had no reaction.  So, we believed it was an infection.  The doctor prescribed a strong antibiotic for him and told me to give him some Benadryl too just for good measure.  So, we did.  Last night during their bath, I looked at Daniel's leg again and it really looked weird to me.  The spot looked like it had gotten larger and grown down his leg and it was changing to a purplish color.  So, I called the doctor's after hours line and waited for a call back.  That doctor told me to take Daniel to the ER and that he probably needed IV antibiotics.  "Great." I thought.  "He's going to HATE this." 

So, I called my mom and she came over to stay with the younger 2 kids ( Nathan was in bed already and Xander was about to go to sleep).  We got up to the hospital around 9:45pm.  We didn't have to wait too long - a decent wait but not terrible.  We brought the DS so Daniel could play games and our Kindles so we could read if we had to be there for a long time.  Once we got to the bed, the doctor was there within minutes and took a look and of course asked more questions.  He and another doctor he called over to look at it, determined that since Daniel was jumping around and not having trouble with it, it was probably just bruised under the surface.  He drew a line around Daniel's spot with a black permanent marker and told us that if it grows anymore to bring him back.  So, praise GOD, he didn't need an IV or anymore shots.  He was quite brave for a 5 year old having to go to the hospital and I'm very proud of how well he did. 

That was not fun but I do believe that all of the prayers he received from all of our wonderful friends and family, made a big difference.  Thanks to all of you who prayed and most of all, thank you, Lord for my son and for him being ok. 

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