The Hopperton Family: Lila’s weekend at Children’s

Lila woke up on Friday Aug 12th like any other morning in a great mood. I went to change her clothes and noticed a strange bump on her and looked like a blister with a little bit of a yellow tint to it. So since we had just been to PT on Wednesday and the zoo Thursday I assumed it was just a blister. As the morning went on she started getting very fussy and it wasn’t getting any better. I decide to take them outside since everyone was a bit uneasy and Lila refused to get down and walk. When she would finally try to get down and play, which didn’t last too long, she was really favoring the foot with the blister. This wasn’t too much of a surprise to me since she can sometimes be a little dramatic. Right before lunch she was starting to feel a little warm and I really started to worry at this point. I took her temperature and it was around 101 so I called the pediatrician and the nurse recommended I come in since she was favoring it so much. Her blister was now starting to look more like a blood blister and was a little larger than before. She didn’t eat anything for lunch and as soon as everyone was done we went straight to bed for a nap. Everyone went right down and seemed to be sleeping very well. So after a few hours of them sleeping I decided to cancel her appointment thinking sleep was better for her than waking them for the appointment. She woke up shortly after me canceling screaming uncontrollably. I ran into the room and as I went to pick her up realized she was burning up and her blistered foot was hot as well while the other one was really cool. So I immediately called back to reschedule and threw the kids in the van (leaving all of their shoes behind). Luckily Mamoo and Papoo Hopperton were in Florence that day and said they would meet us there to take care of Carter and Madelyn in the office while I took Lila back. We were turning on the road to the office when Lila threw up everywhere, the next bad sign. It didn’t take too long for us to be called back to a room. When the nurse came back to check her out she had a panicked look on her face as she examined her foot and I described what had happened. The doctor came in pretty quickly and immediately after looking at it and hearning her symptoms he told me to take her children’s and we would be staying at least one night. So thankfully Mamoo and Papoo had met us because otherwise I have no idea what I would have done. So they took the kids home and Lila and I headed to children’s.

Brad was coming home from Indy so he met us at the hospital. After a long wait in the ER we finally seen a doctor. They put in her IV in which was the worst part and then made an incision in her foot to allow the infection to drain…which was a piece of cake. She was such a trooper the whole time. We were then admitted us to the hospital where we would be in isolation for at least one night. They collected a culture of the infection and said it would grow over the next day and then be tested with several different meds to see which one worked. They started her on Clindamycin because 99% of the time it works against strep and staph so either way we were covering her.

Here is what her foot looked like before we headed to the doctor

The first night in the hospital was a little rocky since it was late and she hadn’t eaten at all that day. At 10pm that night she actually ate pretty well considering all that had happened to her. I was worried she wouldn’t sleep in the crib but once I rocked her for a little while she went right to sleep and slept cozy in the crib. The nurses came in twice during the night to give her medication and to check her vitals. The doctors were in around 6am and a constant flow from then until 10am or so.

Daddy stayed with us that night and we both commented on what a piece of cake one child would have been. Not that having one child is easy but it’s a whole lot easier than three the same age! Lila was pretty worn out the next day but she never complained. We found out that morning we would probably be staying another night so she could continue taking the meds through the IV. At about 3pm on Saturday afternoon she started bouncing off the walls and she was thoroughly enjoying all the one on one attention from Mom and Dad. Although the situation could have been better it was nice spending some quality time with her.

In isolation…let me out of here!

Keeping the hospital gown on her was becoming a bit of a challenge

Eating dinner with daddy.

Sleeping peacefully on night two. Daddy went home to take care of brother and sister.

Sunday morning playtime with mommy and we were given the okay to go home. We were also told the culture grew a type of staph infection and a few hours later we were also told the medication she had been taking did not react against the staph. We were basically in the hospital the second night in order for her to get the medication via IV and to find out it wasn’t even working against the staph was frustrating although not a shock. We always seem to stump the doctors.