It’s No Fun Unless Everyone’s On Antibiotics

It all started about 2 weeks ago. The weather was nice and Boo was spending a lot of time riding his scooter with his posse. It was only a matter of time before one of them wiped out and this time it was Boo. Fortunately, he was wearing his helmet, which now bears the scars of his crash instead of his head. Unfortunately, he was wearing shorts but no knee pads. He came limping home, and one of his buddies wheeled his scooter home for him.

It wasn’t that bad, really. A couple of band-aids for each knee and one for each one of his hands. He was sore but ok.

The rest of the week was colder and he was wearing pants again, his band-aids fell off and he kept riding his scooter. All was well.

Until last Friday when the weather was warm again and he was wearing shorts. We had just settled on to the couch to start school and I turned to Boo, who was holding the books and saw his knee.

In a word – eeeww!

One of the scabs was clearly infected. It was raised and pus-filled and surrounded by red. I asked him if it hurt and he said only if you touch it. Apparently there’s this lever on his scooter which is used to raise and lower the handle, and it hits Boo on the knee when he rides. Instead of that particular spot healing like the rest, it kept getting reinjured. I managed to get him the last appointment available that day, which was good, because of course, it was Friday.

The nurse and the doctor had entirely too much fun at his expense – exclaiming that while that wasn’t the grossest thing they’d ever seen, it was pretty darn gross. The doctor poked it until it oozed, then pried the scab off. She swabbed it for a culture, then gave him Bactroban ointment and instructions on what to do if it looked worse over the weekend. I even got to fill out an injury report!

All was well.

Monday night Pumpkin Girl started not looking so good. Tuesday morning she skipped her ballet class and by that afternoon had a 102.3 temperature. Wednesday her ears hurt when she swallowed, which I know from personal experience can actually mean a sore throat. By the evening she had the tell-tale signs of a scarlet fever rash. Philip promised to get up at the crack of dawn to get her an appointment for today.

Meanwhile, the nurse had called to tell me that Boo’s culture had grown staph and that he needed to go through a round of antibiotics. Lovely.

Pumpkin Girl kind of freaks out at the idea of having her throat swabbed, so she lucked out that her fever, rash and very obviously painful throat all pointed to scarlet fever. Again. The doc didn’t even bother swabbing her, just sent in the prescription.

And with Bip’s daily antibiotics for VUR, that makes all the children on antibiotics. I’ve made a chart on the white board so I don’t forget. I’m hoping that with Staph Boy already being on antibiotics that Strep Girl won’t infect him, too.

So if you come around our house, don’t be surprised if you’re greeted by this:

Just run for the hills.

H/T to Mary Grace for the sign.

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