Monday, August 16, 2010

If it's not one thing it's another...

On Saturday, I noticed a small red mark next to Kaitlyn's eye. I didn't think much of it, this girl ALWAYS has some sort of rash or spot somewhere on her body, but her eye started swelling later that evening. We thought it was probably from a bite, or an allergic reaction, but we were nervous to give her anything (the Benadryl bottle says DO NOT GIVE TO CHILDREN UNDER 6) so we just put her to bed. Sunday morning she woke up looking like this...




Seriously, I could live without the minor heart attacks Kaitlyn gives me...

Anyways, I knew that UNC has a 24 nurse line so I gave them a call. I explained what was going on to the nurse and she was conflicted on what to do. She decided to have the on-call pediatrician get in touch with me. After explaining the situation to her, I was told to wait for an hour. She said if it was a bug bite, the swelling would probably go down. If it didn't go down, she said to take her to the emergency room. She said that there was a chance that it was an infection and if it was, it needed to be taken care of quickly.

It didn't get any better so Jason and Kinsey left for church and I left for Chapel Hill to go to UNC. There are about 5 hospitals closer to us than UNC, but I feel very comfortable there and figured it was worth the drive.

We got in and settled right away. Kaitlyn was her most charming self and quickly had all the nurses wrapped around her finger. We saw about 50 people (an exaggeration-but it is a teaching hospital so people just kept coming into our room) and still did not leave with a definitive answer. The doctors feel that it most likely started with a bug bite or sting, but they were not sure where the swelling was coming from. It could just be that she is very sensitive to whatever it was that bit her (which is most likely what happened) or it could be because the bite got infected. They decided to err on the side of caution and treat her for periorbital cellulitus, or in other words, an infection around the eye. If left un-treated, this infection can get behind the eye and even into the brain and cause a host of problems. We definitely understand the danger of infections and brains and eyes and ears, ect. and I had no problem agreeing to the treatment, which is simply super-charged antibiotics.



She is doing MUCH better today. She still looks like she got punched in the eye, but she can open her eye and look around. We taken to calling her Quasimodo and I am enjoying the nice, long naps she is taking thanks to the wonders of Benadryl...(you can give babies Benadryl btw BUT only if the doctor tells you to).


Just a funny...Kinsey saw Kaitlyn's eye and said, "Oh gosh! She is a little bit dead because her eye can't open!" Despite my contradictions that no, Kaitlyn was not a little bid dead, Kinsey would not budge. Oh well.

4 comments:

april said...

How terrible! Glad she is doing better and she can open her eye now. Still laughing about Kinsey's "little bit dead" comment. too funny!

Kel said...

I'm definitely laughing at the "little bit dead" comment too! I love the things kids come up with. Poor Kaitlyn though, that is just so awful - poor girl can't catch a break!

nicole said...

Kim, I love your tone in this blog post. Hilarious.

Lacey said...

Oh poor thing! I'm so glad that the swelling is going down...