A prayer request

I haven't been very forthright this last week. I've gone about my business as if it were business as usual but behind the computer monitor, things have not as they seem. The cold/flu season has blown in and we've had a houseful of sick people. However, as it does time and again, it blew in and blew away for most of us. The entire first floor of our house is now showing the wreckage left from this storm, but everyone seemed to be getting well again by Friday. Just as I was about to settle into a weekend of greatly needed cleaning, sorting, folding and generally picking up... Staph peeked in the window!

For those of you who have not read my entire blog beginning to end (because I'm just full of enough of myself to think that you would), my oldest son was in a very bad accident a few years ago (you can read about it here - if you're up for another my sob stories). He has a very large scar area from the wound and another from the surgery. We are careful to go right to the doctor if there is any (and I do mean ANY) signs of infection, etc. in that area. Well... he's had the cold/flu thing that everyone here has had but he just wasn't getting over it so last week it was declared that he had pneumonia and was put on an antibiotic. On Friday, he came to me asking me to look at a "bump" that had shown up on the top of his scar. Saturday he was throwing up. Yesterday we were in the immediate care with the words MRSA and Staph looming over us. Because of his accident 3 years ago we're now aware that he has severe allergies to many medications. Because of his inability to take many of the antibiotics to treat Staph... oh, what a worried mommy I was last night!! This morning, he was covered in hives and still throwing up.

Well, he's taking "gut busting" (medical term) doses of antibiotics to treat the pneumonia and the possible staph. And to counter his allergic reaction to the antibiotics, he's taking steriods and benadryl. If there's no improvement by tomorrow morning, he'll be admitted to the hospital to have IV antibiotics where he can be more closely monitored and the "blister" will be lanced and cleaned (because it's on top of a previous non-healing wound area, the concern is that the infection will follow one of the "tracks" or scar tissue and create a pocket of infection somewhere).

Although it's tempting to play the "feel sorry for me" song, please know that we're in good hands and we've been through much worse. Somedays I would really like for the need to worry about his health to end, but I know that the reality is that he is always at risk for infection in that area and it's a serious risk because he can't take most antibiotics. (The doctor, whom I absolutely love, joked with us today, "he's allergic to the planet so we have to try to stay ahead of things". Being pro-active is exhausting but it's better than the alternative =) Please pray with us tonight. Of course, being the 16 year old that he is, he doesn't think any of it is a big deal and would probably be very angry that I've even shared this with all of you.

Below are some pictures to give you an idea of what we're dealing with. Please be aware that they're graphic..

This 1st photo is from the day after his initial accident..

The second photo is of the wound as it was not healing and had to be drained (it was about a year after the accident before the wound finally closed)

The last photo is of the "blister" as of yesterday. Doesn't seem like much after the other two photos, but it could easily become an open, non-healing wound.

I may not be blogging for the next couple of days but know that I'll wish I was =)