Missing in Action (Brayden and Barbara Update)

Hello my friends,

I haven’t been on Gather much recently and wanted to let you know what’s been going on.

About three weeks ago, my grandson Brayden (14 months old) got sick with what we thought was a cold.  He went to his ped and he said it would run its course in about 7-10 days.  About a week later, he was still coughing a lot and running a low grade fever.  Went back to the doctor to get Amoxycillin.  He took this for about two days and was coughing so hard he would throw up.  Thinking he might be allergic to the meds, my daughter called the doctor and he prescribed Azithromycin which Brayden took for 5 days.  He started to act like he felt better, wasn’t coughing as much and had more energy.  However, about 4 days later Brayden was coughing a lot again.  So last Wednesday, my daughter and I took Brayden back to his doctor.  Brayden was sent to the lab for a chest x-ray, blood work and nasal swabs analysis.  The doctor said it might be pertussis (whooping cough).  Needless to say, that was scary.  Poor little thing didn’t like any of those tests.  Wednesday evening, the doctor called my daughter to tell her it wasn’t pertussis.  He thinks it’s either viral bronchitis or asthma.  He’s treating Brayden for asthma right now with prednisone.  If there isn’t a significant change by Saturday, he wants to see Brayden again.

The problem with all of this is Brayden, his mom and dad, and I are supposed to leave Tuesday for Orlando.  My son-in-law has a business conference at Disney World and we are to accompany him and have a mini vacation too.    Whether we will all still be going is up to the doctor and how Brayden is feeling by Monday.  I have offered to keep Brayden so that my daughter can go.  We will have to wait and see how Brayden responds to this medication.

There’s another reason I haven’t been available recently.  Three weeks ago today, I went to a hair salon to have my hair colored and cut.  During the color process, my head started burning near the hairline at my forehead.  Within a few days I had an itchy, swollen redness that was moving down my forehead.  By the 5th day, I went to the urgent care.  It turns out that I had a skin infection (cellulitis) which can be serious.  The doctor gave me an antibiotic shot in the hip and prescribed 2 oral antibiotics, one for the MRSA bacteria and one for a staph bacteria and an antibiotic ointment to apply twice a day.  He took a culture of the burned place and told me to return the next day.  We had to wait till the culture grew before we would know what kind of bacteria we were dealing with.  I returned the next day.  The infection had moved further down my forehead toward my eyes.  I received 2 shots this time, one in each hip.  The doctor said if the infection reached my eyes I was to go to the ER where I would have to get IV antibiotics.  I returned again the third day.  The doctor said the redness was marginally better but still gave me 1 more shot.  By now the swelling was causing my eyelids to droop.  I was a sight, I can assure you.

I received a call from the doctor the following day with the results of the culture.  The good news is it wasn’t the MRSA bacteria which is very resistant to treatment.  It was a staph infection.  The doctor allowed me to stop taking one of the oral antibiotics.  I have finished all of my medicines except the ointment which I am still applying twice a day until the burn abrasion is gone.  The redness is mostly gone, the swelling and itching is gone and I’m feeling much better. 

So, at this point we’re still planning to leave Tuesday for Orlando.  Unless Brayden feels worse and I decide to stay here and keep him, we’ll be gone from Tuesday through Sunday.  I’ll work on catching up with my Gather emails when I return.  I will definitely view all content, but I may not be able to comment on all.

When I return, I’ll post some photos of our Disney World trip.  In the meantime, take care all my Gather friends.  I’ll see you soon.