Time for the ER

After reading a few books and getting ready for bed, Collin put his right leg in the air to put over me.  He loves to do this like a hug to get closer to me.  When he did this, I thought I saw a red mark on the bottom of his foot...like a red Popsicle stain.  I asked to look at the bottom of his foot and noticed that he had a large splinter embedded in his foot.  The area around the splinter was red and slightly swollen.  What worried me was I saw the red part moving up the side of his foot.  I had learned when I was little about the "red streak" when Mimi pricked her finger on a rose bush in the front yard of our house.  She did not immediately go to the doctor but did end up there when a red streak was prominently from her pricked finger moving up her hand and arm.  Turns out, this was badly infected and could have killed her.  I calmly called Mimi to describe what I was seeing, sent her pictures of his foot and asked if this was a red streak forming.  She agreed it was and I should go to the ER.  I calmly told Collin he needed to get dressed so we could have the doctor help get the splinter out and possibly get some medicine.  He immediately wanted to know if he was getting a shot.  I told him I did not think he would but that he would likely have liquid medicine.  "Sure, it might taste funny but it will help you get better."

The splinter is at the bottom of this picture

There was no one waiting in the ER waiting room, so we where seen by the doctor quickly.  He said I was smart to bring Collin.  He said that if I had waited until the morning, the infection could have made it to his groin and he would likely needed to be checked into the hospital.  He took Collin's vitals and then started writing his notes.  Collin asked if he was going to do "the knee thing".  The doctor smiled, and walked over to check Collin's knee reflexes.  This made all of us laugh when both knees kicked when the doctor used the tool to check Collin's reflexes.  He then wrote a prescription for 7 day antibiotics.  We waited over 20 minutes to fill the prescription which was almost as long as we were at the ER.  While waiting, Collin tole me "I want to be a doctor of humans.  If I get fired, then I can be a doctor of dogs....not a doctor of all animals because I don't like cats".

We were home a little after 10pm.  After taking his first dose of medicine, he was tired and fell asleep quickly.

By morning, the swelling and redness was gone.  He did not have a fever and was full of energy.  Yeah!!!