We got one of the scares of our lives when Benjamin was 16 months old. We were having a normal spring/summer. Benjamin had been outside playing along with the rest of the children. We were walking up the back stairs of our house and he yelped. It was a warm day, so, he had on shorts and no shoes. I looked for what had made him cry out. He had a little scratch. It barely broke the skin. It didn't even draw blood. I didn't think anything about it. Kids get scratched all the time. This was my fourth child. I had seen WAY worse with the older two!
Around five or six days later, Benjamin seemed kind of listless. He started running a fever off and on. He didn't really want to eat, just nurse. I figured it was no big deal. He was always around other kids, so, he had probably picked up something. The next day, he was running more fevers and spiking. I noticed a rash on his leg. The scratch had healed completely. But, the rash looked funny. It was red and raised, and mottled looking. I didn't like it and Chris didn't either. We called the doctor. They told us to bring him in a side door because of the rash. They didn't want to expose other children.
When we got to the doctor, the doctor took one look at the rash and said for us to take him straight to the hospital. He called the pediatric unit and told them we were on the way. My baby had developed a staph infection from that little scratch! Benjamin had no fever at that moment. The hospital was less than 0.2 miles from the doctor's office. We went straight there, parked, went inside and up to the second floor. Benjamin started feeling REALLY warm. We sat down, a nurse took his temp and it was 104.9! He had spiked that quickly!
I was terrified. Benjamin was crying and wanting to nurse. I started nursing him. He sat up, and lost most of it. Here I was, covered in it, and no other clothes to wear. Chris had to leave and go get clothes and such for both of us. Some kind nurses found some scrubs for me to wear while I waited. My poor baby was so sick!
They started him on antibiotics immediately. He didn't respond well. They had to try multiple sites for his IVs. Every night, Chris and I had to take turns sleeping in the hospital crib with him. The hospital rules were he had to be in the crib. However, HE wouldn't sleep without touching one of us. For the first couple of days, the only nutrition he got came from nursing. He wouldn't or couldn't eat.
The doctor had to try four different antibiotics. Benjamin still didn't respond to the treatment. He kept spiking fevers. He kept getting sick and the rash was spreading. In a last ditch effort, the doctor put him on Vancomycin. Benjamin had also yanked out every IV and they finally had to put the new one in his little forehead. Vancomycin is one of the strongest (and most expensive, over $1,000 a dose) antibiotics out there.
It finally worked! He had been in the hospital 8 days before the Vancomycin was used. In all, he was hospitalized for 10 of the longest days of my life! He acted like he had never been sick by the time we left. In the end, I guess God knew what he was doing by making my child so stubborn I couldn't say no to the continued nursing. It helped save his life. However, I finally got stubborn with him a month later and got him weaned :)
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