Name That Bump

My Twitty friends know that Micah has had a weird pimply-like outbreak for some time now. It's been mainly focused in his diaper area, but occasionally he'll have one on his face, and over the weekend he had one on his wrist and inside his nose. They don't seem to bother him in the least, and I wasn't really concerned as they didn't look angry, irritated, or otherwise harmful. They were just like zits - they would start red, come to a head, and then pop and go away.

I'm not really a panicky mom. I mean, with 4 kids, I'd be at the doctor's all the time if I took them in for every bump, pimple, rash, ache or pain that ever developed. I'm there enough the way it is for crying out loud. But with his tonsillectomy coming up tomorrow I figured I'd better know if it was something that I should know about. So I called the doctor and asked "is this something I should know about?"

Of course their answer is always the same. "You should probably have him seen." Grrrr So I took him into town to waste yet another $10 in gas.

The doctor says nothing as he writes in the chart. I try making small talk to avoid the whole "so what do you think it is?" question. I'm trying to decide if he's writing "another stupid mom wasting my time. This is her second offense. Once more and she's outta here!" or if it's actually something that my son has.

I guess I should tell you that I also err on the side of stupidity sometimes. I had Becky in for a fever once only because I'd just had strep and I wanted her tested. She coughed. He asked how long she'd had the cough. Turns out her persistent it's-nothing cough that she'd had for 3 months was bronchitis. This was many long years ago, but I probably have that label in my chart as well. "Yet another confirmed case of child abuse. Next time I'm calling authorities."

And then the doctor turns around and says it's an infection of some sort. Probably either staph or MRSA. There was a bell ringing inside my peabrain somewhere saying "aren't those both kinda bad?" And again, I'm thinking "what kind of mom am I to these poor children? Someone rescue them from me!"

Because of all the bells and voices inside my head I didn't register to ask how on earth he could have gotten it, but I did ask if it was contagious. That was the dumber question of the two because I already knew the answer. If he's had it for over a month and nobody else has it, then it's not really that contagious.

So we headed next door to the hospital for a nasal swab to see which kind, if either, it was so that we could effectively treat it with antibiotics. I looked up Sam and thankfully he was on his lunch break and was able to help hold Micah down. (Yes, it takes more than one person to hold a 5 year old down. He's freakishly strong.)

Also, while at the hospital, Sam asked one of the doctors there about those two infections. Turns out, deadly though they can be, that everyone carries those germs around with them all the time. Nice, huh? Apparently for some reason Micah just has a few more of them than he should and needs some meds to clear them out. So it's not all that serious. Unless the test results tell us differently.

It'll take 24 hours to get the preliminary test back, which is sometime today. And if there's really something going on, it'll be 48 hours to see exactly what variety it is. That means he'll go into surgery with a maybe mystery infection. The doctors will love that.

Me and my procrastinating ways. If I'd only taken him in any time in the past month I wouldn't be living life on the edge the way I do. If you're a Twit, I'll let you know what I find out.