On Sunday, August 26th Miss Violet started getting a little cranky in the afternoon, had a little bit of a runny nose and seemed a little warm to the touch. As, what I considered fairly experienced parents, we thought she was coming down with a cold. Boy, were we wrong – WAY wrong.

Brian ended up staying home with her on Monday due to the fever; there was no way daycare would take her if she had anything remotely close to a fever. He said she was pretty cranky all day but by the time 4:00 p.m. rolled around her fever had spiked to 103 degrees. He sent me a text message around 4:30 p.m. and I rushed out the door from work. I wanted to get home just in case we had to take her to the doctor, urgent care or even worse…the ER. Sure enough when I got home I knew she was in bad shape – still hot, still a runny nose and what looked like swollen glands. By later that evening they were so swollen I feared she couldn’t breathe. On top of that, she was laying in her crib moaning and whimpering. Something was very wrong…

We called the after hours doctor and described her symptoms. The doc thought that she might be able to make it until morning but said that we should go on our parental instincts. That was all I needed to hear. We immediately started packing the diaper bag for the trip to the ER. Ethan was already in bed so Brian wanted me to stay home with him so he could sleep. Brian left the house with Miss Violet for the ER. Five minutes later he sent me a text. He was back. His tire was low and had been leaking air for a couple of days. Great.  So, we moved her to the mommy-van and he was off.  And I was to sit and wait by my iPhone. It was absolute torture.

I’m sure you can imagine my shock when Brian sent met this picture…

Miss Violet in the ER with an IV. She was given the IV not for dehydration but instead to get antibiotics in to her bloodstream – FAST.  They drew blood and admitted her. We had no idea what was ahead. Besides the fact that it was now after 2:00 a.m. on what was Brian’s 33rd birthday, we had no idea just how bad it was going to get.

Nearly 24 hours later, Miss Violet finally got a good long stretch of sleep even though she was still feverish. It was so nice to see her finally sleeping.

The poor thing really needed her rest. She had been poked so much, was still running a fever, had a runny nose, and so much congestion that she could barely breathe. It’s a wonder she was able to sleep at all. Throughout her entire hospital stay she relied on four things for comfort – Dad, Mom, her Hello Kitty blanket and her purple “Happy” hippo blankie by Angel Dear.

So Brian spent his birthday in the hospital and the next two and half days; bringing the grand total to 3.5 days. I’m sure the Explanation of Benefits we receive from our insurance company is going to be spectacular! During those 3.5 days we did a lot of waiting. Did I say A LOT? Because it was A L-O-T of waiting. It was exhausting. Having a one year old confined to a crib and attached to an IV for that many days is horrible. I wouldn’t wish that on any parent. She was so restless and hard to manage – not that I blame her.

We finally did get the diagnosis – MRSA. Unfortunately, she developed an abscess too. The real torture was waiting for it to drain and if it didn’t that meant surgery to drain it. This photo shows the abscess that covered her entire chin and part of her neck. The doctor drew a line around it in purple so they could keep an eye on the size to make sure it didn’t swell even more.

Luckily, the antibiotics were doing what they were supposed to be doing. The abscess began to drain and the swelling slowly went down. They ended up doing an ultrasound on Thursday to make sure there was no more liquid. If they found liquid surgery would be scheduled for later that afternoon. Fortunately, there was none. By now she was feeling better and starting to get restless. She was not happy about being in the crib and she learned a new word – “No!” We had never heard her say “no” before and we definitely never heard her say anything was such authority.

Miss Violet received a delivery on Wednesday. She absolutely loved the flowers she received from my office. Who knew flowers would bring so much joy to a one year old. Thank you CAA!

And then the flowers from Daddy’s office arrived. Thank you Arup!

Soon Violet found ways to entertain herself.

And we found ways to entertain her.

Finally, late Friday morning we talked to the doctor and got the okay to take her home. She was pretty excited and wanted to tell everyone!

But, of course, that meant the IV had to come out. After seeing this I’m glad I was not there when they put it in.

And then, more waiting. Waiting to get released has got to be the worst. I mean knowing they are going to let you leave but yet you have to wait. So we goofed around while we waited.

Finally, we got the okay to pack up so we got Miss Violet dressed and ready to go.

And what do you think she did as soon as we got out of there? Yep, she feel asleep in the car on the way home.

The good news is we’ve been home for a couple days now and every day she seems better and better. She did lose her voice today but I think it’s because she’s learned to say “No!” and “No Way!” with authority and she’s been using those phrases repeatedly.  We have to go visit her regular doctor on Tuesday to get the release so she can go back to daycare but I think she’ll be okay by then.

Once we got home and got settled we took a quick moment to let Daddy open one of his birthday presents (the other one is still at my office because I never dreamed I wouldn’t be back before his birthday to take it home). Let’s just say it was good to be home and the real gift was us all being home together – safe and sound…