The ER

I can only imagine it as she saw it ... white walls with colored tiles thrown in for effect; feet played into the tiles on the floor; the smell of antiseptics and a sight of a hard working member of the custodial crew.  She knew she had a boo-boo, and she could point to me where it hurt.  It wasn't a huge deal; definitely not life threatening, but it was the weekend and a Sunday at that.  The only place open on Sunday is the ER.  So off to the ER we went.

I took Leah swimming last Friday night.  Andrew was off work, so Leah and I headed to the pool for a little mommy and daughter bonding time.  I saw her get bit by a mosquito; on the cheek.  I remember thinking ... man that sucks, need to put something on that when we get home.

Saturday morning I woke up before everyone else and headed to church to help with the skills testing for our Upwards football league (you can see my pictures here).  Imagine my surprise when I came back home to see Leah with the start of a black eye!  She told me she feel off her bed ... well, I later figured it out to be something else.

We all took naps on Saturday, and when she woke up I noticed that the markings around her eye was not the start of a bruised black eye, but rather very swollen and most likely a reaction to the bug bite.  I called my pediatrician ... I called my mom ... I called my 2 best friends who are both in medical school .. I called my husband.  I tweeted it, I facebooked it, I googled it ... and we let her sleep with the swollen eye which now had a green marker on where the swelling ended.

Sunday morning the swelling had reached up to her eyelid.  We felt she had to see a doctor because it was her eye and we didn't want any sort of infection happening up in there.  But of course ... it's Sunday.

The Children's ER is friendly.  It has a nice waiting room with a huge toy that entertained Leah.  And if you go early on a Sunday morning, you are one of two people waiting to be called back.

I asked Leah how she liked the doctor.  She told me about the blood pressure cuff that squeezed her leg when the nurse took her blood pressure.

Apparently when the little blood sucker bit Leah's cheek, an opportunistic bacteria squirmed its way in too.  That unexpected bacteria caused an immunological response around my little girl's eye.  Oh, and I know exactly what happened ... what cells were fighting, how they were doing it, why it was happening (because I work in an immunology lab), but I don't think you came here for a science lesson.  They deemed her eye as being ok, and put her on antibiotics to make sure an infection didn't happen.

and now the recovery process happens ... and hopefully no one thinks we beat our child ...