My daughter, Betty, has the biggest cheeks.
Now that she’s getting a little older, she is starting to slim out a bit more, but as a little 10 week old infant, she was all cheeks and chins and general adorable squishy-ness. It was great, but also somewhat of a hassle. All the extra chins and rolls would trap formula and drool and they had to be diligently cleaned, sometimes multiple times a day. On one occasion. My baby girl got a yeast infection in the folds of her neck. It was red and horrible and I felt so bad for her. It seemed like it popped up and spread overnight.
I never wanted to be that new mom that calls the pediatrician over every little thing, but I wanted some advice. No amount of washing or cleaning was making it any better and I thought that maybe he could prescribe me something to clear it up. He diagnosed her sight-unseen with the yeast infection and prescribed a cream that I was to put on her neck a couple of times a day. In 4 days time, I should see some improvement. I was satisfied with this answer. I trust my pediatrician.
But right away things seemed to be going downhill. My daughter was irritable and whenever it was time to put the cream on, she would scream in pain. I called her doctor again on Wednesday evening after a particularly terrible meltdown and he told me to give her some Tylenol. That the cream wouldn’t have started working yet and that I needed to give it some time. So I gave her the Tylenol, hoping that the next morning would bring some improvement. It did not. It looked worse. She had only been using the cream for a day and a half, but at that point, I didn’t care what the doctor said. I told my husband that she was going to see him right away.
Her regular pedi wasn’t there that day and she was seen by another, very nice woman who confirmed what I was afraid of. While the diagnosis was correct, the cream was actually exacerbating the yeast infection. It wasn’t going to get any better with this stuff. At this point, my daughter’s neck was fire engine red and raw and so painful looking that it brought tears to my eyes. We were given a new prescription for anti fungal medications and sent on our way with a promise that she would check in on us soon. That night, I noticed that some of the redness from Betty's neck was creeping up on her face. It was only a little spot, but I still called the doctor yet again. At this point, I figured I had already reached critical mass of annoyance, so why not go all out. They told me to use a little bit of the anti fungal on it and that it should clear up quickly.
I wish I could say that’s what happened, but the nightmare had just begun.
Betty is usually a champion sleeper, but that night she was up frequently, crying. I would go in to comfort her and she would go back to sleep for a bit only to be up again an hour or so later. Finally at around 6 am as I rocked her with daylight just starting to filter in through her shades, I noticed her face. Her beautiful, chubby right cheek was flaming red and swollen. I called for my husband right away and told him that we needed to get her to a doctor immediately. My hope was that she was having a simple allergic reaction to the cream we had put on her face, but deep down I knew that’s not what it was. We drove her to urgent care, still practically in our pajamas, but they didn’t open until 7am. He suggested we go home and wait, but somehow I just knew that waiting was not an option now. I drove to the ER of the hospital where she was born and a short time later we were told that this was not a simple allergic reaction, but an aggressive case of cellulitis; a bacterial infection underneath her skin. It had shown up in a matter of not even 12 hours and continued to spread even as we sat in the ER. We were told that she would be in the hospital at least overnight. It was now Friday morning. Sunday was Mother’s Day.
We were admitted and sent up to pediatrics...my baby hooked up to an IV and cuddled in my arms. They ran a gamut of blood work to find out the details and severity of the infection. There was talk of possible meningitis. We were given out own room because they initially thought she might have MRSA, which is highly contagious and resistant to antibiotics. Her first round of blood work came back favorable, but we were told that she would still be in the hospital until at least Monday for observation. I cried my eyes out. I'm crying again right now just thinking about it. Seeing my poor sweet girl continuously poked and prodded and hooked up to the IV was destroying me from the inside out. They drew a line on her face in purple marker to show where the edges of the infection were. For the next several days I would study that line again and again and again...obsessing over where the redness stopped and her beautiful clear skin began. She was such a trooper through all of it though. Trying to smile though the pain of her swollen face and still eating like a champ despite the antibiotics that the doctor said might make her very sick.
Meningitis was ruled out fairly quickly, thank god. Then it was a waiting game. It seemed like it got worse before it got better, but in time the redness started to fade and recede from the edges of the marker line. On Sunday, Mother’s Day, my husband went home in the morning with a high fever. He took NyQuil and was unreachable by phone all day. There I was in the hospital, alone with my baby, sad that I had to spend my first Mother’s Day that way, but so very thankful that she was getting better and that I had trusted my gut when I knew things were not quite right. What if we had continued to put the cream that was originally prescribed to her on her neck rather than taking her back in? What if we hadn’t gone to the ER that morning? If we had waited, who knows how this story would have ended. I can’t even think about any other outcome. Our story has a happy ending. We were sent home the following day.
Being a new parent is hard. We all know this. Babies get sick and they can’t tell us what is wrong so we are sometimes left with some decisions to make. Do we call the doctor? Do we take our child in to the office? To the emergency room? If you ever have to ask yourself any of those questions, I think the answer should always be ABSOLUTELY YES. I may not be winning any Mother of the Year awards in my lifetime, but one thing I will always share from my experience is to always trust your mommy instincts. Ask lots of questions. Be obnoxious with the doctor. Follow up if things don’t seem right to you. If you’re wrong, your wrong, but you could also be very right and catch something in time before it becomes an even bigger problem or worse.
~Lauren
{Mommy to Betty since 3/5/12}PS. I am forever indebted to my friends of the CKC who showered us with so much love while we were in the hospital on Mother’s Day. The pictures you all took will be cherished forever. <3
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