Trip to the ER

We had a first this weekend, taking one of our kids to the ER. First the back story. Saturday we were out most of the day. We checked out a house and land that we are interested in. We spent about an hour there with the realtor (no we are not moving yet, just wishing right now.) When we got in the van I noticed Sheila had several bug bites on her legs. I was kicking myself for forgetting the bug spray although none of the rest of us had gotten any. Then we went over to the park for about half an hour. It was so hot even in the shade that Timmy wanted to go home before any of the rest of us.

After a short time at home we went out and cleaned the church and then over to McDonald's to meet up with grandma, grandpa, and cousin Lydia. When we got home Sheila wanted some cream (Benadryl cream) on her bug bites. I applied it on all of them before she went to bed.

Sunday morning I am the first up and ready for church. I am about to wake Ray up when I hear him get after Sheila for getting in the refrigerator. She runs off crying. I go over to her and ask if she wanted a drink or something. Ray comes over as well. She then tells me her leg hurts and rubs the back of her thigh. I turn her leg over thinking I am going to apply some more cream and the back of her thigh is swollen to about the size of a lemon and is bright red. I have never seen any mosquito bite swell up that bad. I have a skin condition that causes me to get infections really easy, and Sheila seems to have inherited that from me. We both get nasty welts when something bites us. Hence I usually bathe the kids and I in bug spray before we go out.

I show Ray the bite and we are both worried. The base clinic is closed, so we call the on call nurse at the hospital. Once Ray describes the incident she says to bring her in because it may be cellulitis, which can get much worse untreated. I call the neighbor and she gladly takes Timmy for us. Instead of heading off to church we head to the ER. It was very slow so we got right in. We weren't there very long. The doctor said it most likely was a yellow fly bite but since it mimics cellulitis they have to treat both. She got antibiotics for the cellulitis and benadryl for the bug bite. She seemed to be doing fine.

Then Monday afternoon her fever shot up to almost 103 and her leg was even redder. I gave her Tylenol and cooled her with a wash cloth. Ray called the clinic and talked to the nurse there. She said to bring her back if she still had a high fever the next day. But her fever broke and the next day the bite was not so red and the swelling had started to go down. Now I just have to struggle for her to take the antibiotics since she says "She doesn't like it." The pictures are from Sunday.

And just a side note on yellow flies. They are mean persistent little buggers. They do not shoo away easily and will try to land on you just to bite you. When you see one you have to run away from it and it may still follow you. I got bit by one when I was pregnant with Sheila but mine did not swell up like hers did.