Tanner's ER Adventure

Justin took the boys down to Wolf Creek on Wednesday afternoon to play in the water. Now, I must stop here to ask, "Who willingly lets their children play in Wolf Creek?" Anyway, while playing, Tanner got bit/stung on the ankle by "something"...we still don't know what this "something" was. After about thirty minutes, his ankle began to swell. Justin brought him over to my work so that I could look at it and give my motherly advice for care. : ) I told him to call the doctor and give Tanner Benadryl. The doctor's office was closed and, of course, none of Justin's three pages to the doctor were returned.

Tanner had a ball game scheduled for 6:00 Wednesday night. Justin wasn't going to let him go because Tanner's ankle was still quite swollen. However, Tanner said it didn't hurt and he HAD to go. Justin dropped him off at 5:00 because the team was going to warm up and do some batting practice. I got out of work early at 5:00 (I usually work until 8 on Wednesday nights) so I was able to go to the game.

As soon as Tanner took the field, I knew his ankle was worse. He was limping, holding his foot off the ground, rubbing his ankle, etc. He played through the inning and when he came into the dugout, I met him and took his shoe and sock off. The swelling was much worse and the area was now bright red and hot to the touch. I took him to the ER where I "patiently" waited two hours and forty minutes before seeing a doctor (two hours and thirty minutes of it in the waiting area). The doctor briefly looked at Tanner's ankle and was about to send us home with a prescription for antibiotics, when I asked him about it being red and hot to the touch. "Oh", he said. "It seems to be infected. Are you sure he got stung today?" I wanted to say NO, I'm a moron and don't know what happened to my child. However, I calmly told him that the bite occurred around 2:30. The doctor order blood tests and an x-ray. The blood tests showed no toxins in his blood, so nothing poisonous bit him and the x-rays showed nothing, which I already knew they wouldn't. Tanner got an oral antibiotic and an antibiotic shot in his leg. He was not happy about the blood being drawn and was even more unhappy with the shot. Add to this the fact that it's now 10 something at night and that equals a very cranky kid. We got home at about 11:30pm with a prescription for two additional antibiotics for him to take over the next ten days. He takes one pill four times a day and the other twice a day.

The swelling still isn't 100% gone, but he can put weight on his foot again and it doesn't bother him. Oh yeah, we also got the boys a new pediatrician...finally! He's 24 miles closer than their old one and we're hoping he returns phone calls. ; )