The Gilbert Family: November 2010

Riddle me this:

What was our family most afraid of this halloween season??

a) ghosts

b) vampires

c) zombies

d) MRSA

If you answered "d", you must have heard of our eventful October,

and Wyatt's 9-day stay in the hospital.

Wyatt got MRSA... stands for "multiple-resistant staphylococcus aureus",

aka the "superbug".

Traditionally, MRSA infections have been a problem in healthcare facilities. However, MRSA is beginning to spread to the general population. This is a bacteria that is everywhere... it's even on our skin and in our noses. Usually people can ward of a MRSA infection without the aid of antibiotics, but if not, it can be life threatening. In fact, MRSA now causes more deaths in the USA per year than AIDS - more than 18,000.

Somehow Wyatt got MRSA.

The doctors say there is nothing we could have done to prevent it or predict it... it's a random freak thing. He was put on a topical antibiotic for 2 little tiny red diaper rash-type dots.... looked like nothing at all, but I pointed them out to the doctor at his 1 year check-up. It didn't help, and the infection spread to his lymph nodes in the crease where his leg connects to his body. The doctor then gave us some oral antibiotics for Wyatt to take in addition to the cream. It didn't help.

His abdoman, groin, and leg joint area swelled up and was very red and rock hard from the infection. He had a fever. The doctors were not not sure what was going on... they thought it could possibly be a hernia. We were sent to emergency where they determined it was not a hernia, and then ran tests on Wyatt and attempted to drain the infection. It was horrible. He felt everything and screamed the entire time. They had to insert the needle twice and it was excruciating and traumatizing for him. And me too.

They were unable to drain anything, and he was admitted to pediatrics.

The kids were at least happy to see that Wyatt's doctor in the ER was named after their beloved kitty! :)

This was Wyatt's crib. The bed was elevated about 3 feet off the ground.

I couldn't help but feel like he was an exhibit at the zoo!

At first Wyatt needed antibiotics every 4 hours. Later they were able to spread it out to every 6 hours. However, the IV treatment lasted for an hour and a half. The only way to get Wyatt to stay still and not pull his IV out, was if we put him in his highchair to eat, or if he was sleeping. If neither of these were an option, I had to nurse him for an hour and a half straight to keep the IV.

Vancomycin... the strongest antibiotic available to treat this illness.

The doctors started Wyatt on this, and it wasn't working.

That was scary.

They decided to back off because it was harsh on his body and not doing any good. They put him on a different, yet weaker antibiotic called Clindamycin.

It didn't help. He was getting worse, so they put him back on the vancomycin.

Every couple of days they would tell us they thought he might be improving, only to find that he was worse again the next day.

You can see in this picture how there is zero slack on the IV line between Wyatt's arm and the machine... he pulled his IV out twice, just rolling over. I learned to stand over his crib for the entire hour and a half, or I held him.

Neither of us slept much at night.

I got really good at connecting all of his wires!! :)

You learn quick.

And yes, my son is wearing pink.

He wore a LOT of pink in the hospital... they didn't seem to have any clothing his size that wasn't pink, and even that was too big.. we had to cut the feet off.

Josh and Claire, bless their hearts, hung out with Wyatt and I all day long.

We weren't allowed to leave the room.

So, we watched a LOT of movies... I think i counted 30 or more by the time we left.

They had this little TV from home, and they also had a huge flatscreen TV on the wall.

It was a nice room, as far as hospitals go!

Long long days and nights.

You can get an idea in this picture just how large the room was.

There was a chair that pulled out into a bed for me, and I lived at the hospital with Wyatt.

Jason still had to work, and the kids had school. We had lots of friends help us out with meals (the hospital food wasn't the greatest... breakfast was good, but it's hard to mess up breakfast). Our friends also helped to drop off and pick up our kids. We are so blessed :)

The nurses brought Wyatt a few toys to play with during our stay. He especially liked his ball :)

Whenever we were wheeled downstairs for an ultrasound, Wyatt pointed out all of the convex mirrors in the hallway, pointing and shouting "ball!" at each one.

In our room I would lay blankets out across the floor to give him a clean place to play.

He especially loved this exersaucer thing... it spun all around a central base like a satellite... he spent a lot of his time running in circles :)

Part of Wyatt's treatment was long soaks in the tub 3 times a day... not an easy feat with a giant heplock IV that can't get wet, and a 1 year old. So 3 times daily I wrapped his arm in a diaper and plastic bags and hoped for the best.

Since the antibiotics weren't touching the infection, the doctors thought Wyatt might have an abscess, which is a pocket where the infection dwells, forming a protective barrier against antibiotics. They did several ultrasounds throughout Wyatt's stay, and couldn't really see one until about day 6. Since he wasn't getting better the surgeon decided that surgery was necessary to try to drain and remove some of the infection. They whisked him away very quickly once they decided to do it, and brought him back pretty fast. It was only after this surgery that Wyatt started to show some improvement.

A couple of days after Wyatt's surgery, we were let out of our room to go for a walk!

Wyatt got to sit in this sweeeeeet ride!

We shared a smoothie.

It was a beautiful day, and felt so good to get OUT!!!

The day before we went home there was a problem with Wyatt's IV. I noticed his heplock was wet and couldn't figure out why. It turns out the IV had been pulled out partially, and his antibiotics were spilling out. The nurse didn't even notice, and she was the one hooking up his antibiotics! Jason proclaimed that she was not the brightest star in the sky. It was a dangerous mistake! Wyatt lost a couple of doses of his antibiotics, which was concerning, and he no longer had his IV line. They decided to try him on a day of oral antibiotics, rather than re-insert his IV again. He didn't get worse, so they decided we could go home!

He just had to take 2 more weeks of antibiotics at home.

Writing this post was hard... it brought back all the fear and emotions of these horrible 2 weeks.

We are trying not to worry, but the doctors warned us that it could come back. They were hopeful that it wouldn't.

We'll just keep praying and loving our little guy!

He is very strong! And was such an amazing sport through the whole thing... smiling away (when he wasn't being poked!), and charming all the nurses!

He is doing a lot better now, but still healing. It will take awhile for the swelling and hardness of the lymph nodes to decrease, but Wyatt improves a little bit every day.

He is happy to be home, as I think that after awhile he thought the hospital was actually his new home!! No joke!