Monday, October 12, 2009

Better late than never...

right??

As promised, I am posting about Riley's immunization complications from almost 4 weeks ago now...

About 4 weeks ago, Riley went in to see her pediatrician for a routine well-child check up (her 3 year one). Well, she needed just one immunization that was a fourth in a series of 4. She should have gotten that 4th one quite some time ago, but apparently there was a shortage at some point and she had missed out on it. So we were playing catch up :)

Well, that was Monday afternoon. By Tuesday afternoon, the area around the immunization site was quite red and swollen. To some degree, this is totally normal. My girls always have red, tender, swollen, warm areas on their thighs for a few days post-shots. No big deal...except this one was different. I was a little uneasy about how it looked, so I took a photo so I could track if it changed.


It doesn't look so bad in those pics, but it was definitely more than what I was used to seeing, so I wanted to really watch it.
Well, by Wednesday morning it was BAD. And so after preschool (because it was school picture day) off to the pediatrician we went. And the verdict: Cellulitis. Cellulitis is an infection that can happen post surgery or when there is a break in the skin and Staph or Strep bacteria gets into an opening. And it wreaks havoc! So are you ready for the nasty pics? WARNING...This is not for people who are easily grossed out. In less than 24 hours it went from the above photos, to THIS:


My poor little girl!!!!!!! Her leg was like deformed! Luckily we caught it when we did and got her on antibiotics. And it didn't spread more, and then within a few days started to go down. And it looks great now. I have pics of a few days later, but they are still on my camera and I am being nagged for some water by Izzy, so I am done for now.
PS I am done with school. Which is a huge relief. More regular posts coming soon, I hope!

1 comment:

Jodi said...

Oh my freaking gosh! Poor Riley....was she in any pain? I sure hope not!