Last week, things kind of sucked for the StibbeFam.

Tuesday morning Sam was refluxing a lot. We leave for preschool at 8:30am and I tube his 2 syringes of Blended Diet once we get to school. He was fine walking into school, but as soon as I pulled put of the parking lot, I got a call from his favorite teacher Megan. She told me Sam had just thrown up, but was acting totally fine. I told her to keep me updated, but it was probably just because of his reflux.

I had to meet someone at 9:30, and at 9:25 Megan called me again. The preschool director said it was their policy that any child who throws up has to go home. Megan and another teacher, Jamie, tried to explain about Sam, but the director said it was policy.

I picked the twins up after my meeting, and Sam was totally fine. I spoke briefly with the director, and that’s a situation that will end up working out fine.
I gathered up their things, then looked around, and asked: “Where’s Jack?” Long story short– Jack told the teachers he had to potty, Teacher Sean took him, and while Jack successfully went potty, he also missed the toilet and peed all over his leg and Sean. Nice. So Jack got changed, and with all the excitement, pooped his pants about 30 seconds later. Second change. Time for the Stibbe family to go…

On our way out, Sam started screaming. Bloody murder that his leg hurt. I checked his diaper (thinking he was peeing and was freaking out…) and he had pooped. Went to change him in the car and saw a HORRIBLE skin irritation. He was sobbing while I changed him. Poor thing! I took pictures of it and sent it to Emily and Adam– probably just an allergic reaction or a reaction to the poop that got on his leg. Either way, it sucked. Benadryl and Tylenol, and the little guy slept well during nap and woke up better.

Then comes Wednesday… Wednesday morning Adam was post-call, so we planned on going to Vala’s Pumpkin Patch. Right when Sam woke up, he was grabbing his button and saying “Button hurt.” I went to give him some water via tube, and his g-button was incredibly red. He’s had infections around his button before, but it had never looked like this. When I went to touch it, he started yelling at me to stop, but I was able to feel a huge lump beneath his button. Great. So as soon as Adam gets home, I make him check it out. Adam knew it was definitely infected, and we called the doctor. We were able to get in late afternoon and she started us on Bactrim. She was worried about MRSA (as were we) so she told us to call right away Thursday morning if it looked worse. Sam was started on the antibiotic and we prayed for the best.

Thursday morning was horrible. He woke up screaming and sobbing. If you know Sam, you know this is 100% opposite of his typical demeanor. The kid can fall and bloody both knees with just an “ouch. Knee hurt.” He was bent over and whimpering. I opened his PJ’s and the screaming continued. Adam had to hold his arms while I gave him his antibiotic and then I called the doctor ASAP. She got us in within a half hour. Thank goodness Adam’s co-workers are so understanding– he took Sam in, and our doctor was convinced he had MRSA. She called the surgeons over at Children’s Hospital and they said there was nothing they could do unless there was an abscess formed. Since there wasn’t an abscess, the doctors all agreed to start Sam on Augmentin (super strong antibiotic). The next step was IV antibiotics and possibly admitting him.

During nap, Sam was restless. When he finally woke up, I lifted his shirt and holy crap… let me just say it was the most horrifying thing I’ve seen on his button ever. A huge abscess had formed and there was a huge red circle surrounding his button. I freaked and called Adam and he told me to ‘pop’ the abscess. Yeah, right honey, let me do that right away. Suffice it to say, I made him come home.

As I was on the phone with the doctor’s office yet again, with them telling me to go to the ER, Adam comes over to tell me I popped it! There’s a large amount of purulent. (Me: what the F is purulent??)

Anyway, we were headed to the ER, Sam acting totally fine and us freaking out, naturally. All 5 of us are in the waiting room, and I’m constantly checking Sam’s button. It still looks horrific, and now there was a ton of bloody, infected pus weeping from it.

After 3.5 hours, we FINALLY saw the ER doctor who called the surgical NP. Long story (a little) shorter, the NP did nothing but say, Well, since you already popped it, I would just watch it and keep him on the antibiotic.  Sweet, so we spent all this time waiting, and you are going to do nothing, not even clean it up? Great.

So, we are very, very happy to say that Doctor Daddy saved the day! Sam has been doing fantastic since then. The scariest part of this is that the infection was so close to his shunts. His shunts run into his peritoneum, so any time there is something that could possibly infect those we go into Panic Mode.

We may have overreacted, but I’m totally okay with that!

Also, I have to give a HUGE thank you to my wonderful friend Shelly. Shelly was immediately asking what she could do to help, and met Jack, Eli and me at home around 7:30 so she could put them to bed and I could go back to the hospital. We are so lucky to have you in our life Shel! Love you!!