My Little Super-Trooper

I have to do a little backtracking so I am going back to the beginning of the month...on Friday, July 2nd - we had quite a scare with Alayna and ended up at Primary Children's Hospital.

I had taken Alayna and Benson both to the doctor on Wednesday and they had their vaccines. Alayna was complaining about her leg hurting and kind of limping around...it got worse on Thursday instead of better and she was limping more and complaining. I wasn't sure if I should call the doctor or not - I just kept telling her she'd be fine and to keep playing. On Friday - her leg was much worse, we got up and she was dragging her leg - she wouldn't climb onto the couch or anything - and she fell down the stairs. Then I noticed that her knee was getting red. So I called the Doctor and they got her in and I was shocked when she said I'd like you to got straight over to Primary Children's Hospital. The lines around the rash are what the doctor drew before we left so they could see how fast the rash was spreading.

All in all - Alayna was a really good sport. Here she is waiting for x-rays. Anyways, back to the story - the Doctor knew Alayna had cellulitis (a deep tissue infection - completely unrelated to her vaccine), but she was hoping it had not spread to the joint in her knee. Cellulitis spreads really quickly and can make you very sick. Our Doctor was so glad that I had brought her in so quick because it could have been a lot worse. The x-ray at the hospital and some blood tests confirmed that it was not in her joints yet. We were so glad because if it would have been in her joint - we would have been in the hospital about a week (and would have missed our family vacation). So everything was remedied with a 10-day course of strong antibiotics.

My little Super-Trooper (Alayna's favorite Abba song). Alayna usually has pretty bony knees - but you can tell her whole leg and knee is swollen.

The very worst part of our stay was trying to get Alayna's blood drawn and an IV placed. They poked her 4 times and prodded around in her arms to try and get a the needle in (there were three of us holding her down as she kicked and screamed). I have never been so heartbroken as a mother. I cried as I held her down and they kept trying for an IV and couldn't get one. While we were waiting they to told us she couldn't eat or drink anything just in case they had to do surgery on her knee (if the infection was in her joint). I felt so bad telling Alayna that she couldn't eat or drink - she probably asked for a drink of apple juice a hundred times. She had to go six hours with no food or drink - which is a very long time to a thirsty 3 year old. We just felt so blessed that it wasn't worse than it was - we were able to go home and not stay the night in the hospital and the antibiotics started working immediately and by the next morning she could already walk a lot better. Alayna was so strong and brave through everything!