The infection

Ages since I last blogged, yeah yeah, don't judge me.

Lilah has been harder to keep up with every day. As per her normal 2 year old development, she has mood swings to rival a prepubescent girl. One moment my adorable daughter can be playing with me or reading a book. The next, she's grabbing my glasses off my face and smacking me with them, angry at a situation I'm not even aware of yet. We try our best to handle these things calmly as they arise, but some times are more difficult than others.

On Father's Day, Lilah was enjoying herself and running through the sprinkler with her cousins in the Ball's front yard. Kim, Dennis, and I were supervising the kids. I turned my head to answer Dennis and I saw his eyes get wide and he yelled, "Baby girl, you get back here!" At the same time, I heard Adam and Mike yell, "Lilah! Get out of the road!" I whipped my head around to see Lilah merrily frolicking in the middle of the street. I took off to get her, yelling at her to come back. She laughed at me and ran away. I was faster and caught up with her. I grabbed her by the arm, snatched her up, and shook her.
"You don't ever run away from your mama and you don't ever go in the road." By the time, she was crying hysterically and trying to wriggle away from me. I plopped her down on the steps for a time out. I was shaking. I told Kim and Dennis, "If I hadn't been so intent on getting her back here, I'd have spanked her butt." They both agreed they'd have spanked their kid.

The rest of the day went off without incident. She fell and scraped her knee at one point. There was a bit of blood and dirt, which I washed away. But Lilah is continually falling and scraping something so to be honest, I wasn't too concerned.

A week later, the scabbed knee was still scabbed and there was a tiny red area around the spot. I thought that curious, and made a mental note to keep checking on it.

Three days ago, the scab seemed to be more raised and a bit swollen. The reddish-pink area around it had gone from minimal and light to fire-engine red and larger. While (again) playing in the sprinkler, the scab softened and I brushed it away to see if there was any noticeable infection underneath. There wasn't (even after a bit of prodding until Lilah pushed me away). I told myself I would check on it in the morning.

By morning, it was a good inch larger on all sides, bright red, warm, and swollen. I kicked myself for bothering it in case I spread something. Still not a peep of complaint from Lilah and no fever (both pain and fever would have hinted at something systemic, not localized to the knee anymore). We went to the zoo and I worried about it on and off all day, reminding myself I would do some research when I got home.

When we got home and she was down for her nap, I did some digging. Apparently it was pretty common to get a staph infection in a wound like a scraped knee, staph being an opportunistic bastard. I had to wade through yahoo answer sites (where panicked mothers literally told the public and instructed their own children to open and dig out ANY wound and dump peroxide in it or you would get MRSA, have to go on IV antibiotics, and die anyway no matter what) to get to actual medical journals with helpful photos and treatment. I nearly had an anxiety attack while waiting to get a reasonable plan of care together for her. I snapped at Dano, cried, held the baby as if for the last time, and finally organized my thoughts. Lilah was unimpressed, but I held a warm compress to the area to bring the infection to the surface. I put hydrogen peroxide on it and let it bubble and boil. She squirmed and told me to stop it. I was relieved to have found some all natural remedies as well as the old medical stand-bys. I applied some bactroban ointment and Calendula salve. Calendula is a flower that is approved to treat wounds and inflammation in Germany. In America of course, if it doesn't come out of a lab it isn't worth the time it takes to grow the plant. I happen to have Calendula on backup supply at all times because it works beautifully and I don't have to worry about her eating it or something. The Calendula salve was applied liberally.

I then took a sharpie and traced the edges of the redness exactly. This way, I could track if the redness was spreading, reducing, or staying the same without the need to just "eyeball it". I had also nearly smacked myself in the head when I remembered the healing properties of aloe vera. It has been proven to heal hurts (even surgical wounds!) nearly twice as fast as those without aloe due to its vitamin E, C, and zinc. Also, it increases blood flow to the area to promote healing. Aloe alone has strong antibiotic properties. It reduces inflammation and speeds up the healing process. I have an aloe plant in the house, so I cut off a big fat leaf and slit it longways all the way to the top. Using a spoon, I scraped the gel (i.e. sticky, gooey slime) from the middle of the leaf and piled all that loveliness onto a 4x4. I bound that 4x4 loosely to her wound, taping it lightly in place with paper tape so she couldn't tug it loose. Lastly, she was allowed to suck on a vitamin c and zinc lozenge to boost her immune system and I gave her ibuprofen to reduce the swelling and any discomfort she wasn't vocalizing. She snuggled with us and watched Doctor Who with Tu (her new giant plush giraffe she named herself) and read stories until it was time for bed. My strong hope is that she wakes up in the morning happy, healthy, and with the redness decreasing from the sharpie border lines. I am trying hard not to be scared or worried. I am hoping she will heal herself with a little help and not need any more meds. I am hoping.