EXHAUSTED

Today was one of the longest and most emotionally painful days I have experienced as a mother. My poor Zayna has a staph infection in her leg. Lord only knows how she got it. The doctors all say it is so common and they see over 500 cases of it a week, but it was a first and hopefully a last for me. They kept telling me that her case is an extremely small one, but there wasn't anything small about it for Zayna. We first went inot urgent care on Sunday and the doctors at the Pedi Center were horrible. No specific instructions and no eye contact...just "Yup it's staph, put hot compresses on it and give her antibiotics." Thank the Lord I have a friend who is a nurse and has experience with staph infections. I called her up and she gave me the laundry list of how to care for it and keep it from spreading. We were on top of it, but when we woke up today it looked worse. The hole was 3 times the size it was on Sunday and it looked NASTY! I swore I could see tissue. So I took her to Memorial Urgent Care this time and the doctors there were WONDERFUL! We walked in and they took one look at it and said "Well you have cared for it very nicely, but unfortunately we are going to have to drain it and pack it." Now my girlfriend (the nurse) had tried to prepare Zayna and I for this possibility, but you can only prepare someone for so much. The doctor thankfully chose not to lance it because if she had it would have left a larger wound which would have increased the healing time. Instead she squeezed on it like a pimple and it hurt Zayna so badly, but it was necessary. The doctor talked her through the entire thing and was so calm and patient. I have to say that I have NEVER in my life seen anything like it before and had that stuff come out of my daughter at home I would have freaked out and called 911. It wasn't tissue that I was seeing it was the staph and there was a lot of it. She pushed on that thing for a good 5 minutes. When she was done she had to pack it with gauze...which was painful, but not nearly as what had just happened. The doctor crammed almost 6 inches of gauze into Zayna's leg. Thankfully we are done with the worst part and now onto the healing. We go back in tomorrow to have the packing removed and the doctor thinks that it should be almost healed by Friday. I am so proud of Zayna...she was such a trooper today. I couldn't imagine having to go through that...it was bad enough having to watch it. She stayed so still and allowed the doctor to do her job even though she was in extreme pain. She is my new hero and I love her so much!!