I had grand plans to write a 11 in 2011, October Edition or a Mullet Festival post complete with pictures or a share of my latest craft projects, but instead, I have an update on my little Z man, which sad to say, involves another ER story.  I shared the original story here.

We went in to the Doc yesterday afternoon, to get his finger looked at - if you remember, the ER doc's had asked us to take him in for a re-check, to make sure his fingernail was healing and looking good.  At the Doc, they asked me to take his Ace bandage and all the bandaids off of his hand, so they could take a good look at it.  As I am unwrapping it, I start to get a little concerned - his hand was swollen, much more than I remembered.  And his fingers were red.  The Doc came in and voiced her concern as well; she moved us to a treatment room and brought another Doc in to get a second opinion and to confer as to what to do.  They determined that there was no infection (he had no signs of one, plus, he showed very little pain when they poked at his hand), and they began discussing the potential that he was having an allergic reaction to something we had put on his wound (the medicine they had prescribed or the bandage or the tape used to wrap up his fingers).  They advised me to leave it alone, to not put anything on it and to bring him back in 24 hours later, to see if it was any better.  They also advised me to take him in if it got worse or seemed to be causing pain.

I got the kids home, put them down for their nap, made dinner (chicken and sausage gumbo...it was delicious!) and picked up the house.  Once the kids woke up, we played and waited for Max to get home. By the time Max got home, I could tell Z's hand had swollen even more.  His little fingers were red, tight to the touch and he avoided putting any weight on it.  We continued to monitor.  After a few hours went by, we noticed the hand swelling more, and blisters beginning to form at the base of his knuckles.  He still didn't seem phased by it, but we were growing more and more concerned, so we decided to take him back to the ER.  That was right after dinner.

We waited for 4 hours to be seen at the ER and in those hours, his hand continued to swell and blister and turn more red.  It looked like his hand had been burned.  Once back with a Doc, they assessed for infection (still no signs of infection) and talked about how something clearly irritated his skin and was causing an allergic reaction - and that allergic reaction was causing his skin to be burned.  So they prescribed some anti-histamine to help the swelling and treated his hand like a burn.  Slathered cream (that they use on severe burns) all over his hand and wrapped it in a gauze-like wrap (but no glue or tape or anything looking like it, for fear of making the reaction worse!), tying it on his wrist.  They gave us the number to a Burn Center and we are to make an appointment with them for today, or tomorrow at the latest.

Poor little Ezra.  At least he still doesn't seem bothered very much, or in very much pain.  He actually slept last night, which is awesome!  I wish I could say I woke up in the best of moods today, but all of this running around, watching his little hand swell and blister, keeping it safe, and lack of sleep, has this mama a bit grumpy and stressed out (read: this mama has been stress eating and stress cleaning).  And yet I know I need to choose joy, to find the positive, to seek out the good in this situation.  I can always sleep later this week, right?!

Anyways, that's the current situation.  We go to the Burn Center today or tomorrow (it's a 2-3 hour drive, so it'll be an adventurous day) to get yet another assessment of Z's hand, and hopefully figure out how to help heal it.  The good news is that Ezra doesn't seem to be in much pain and there are no signs of infection.  And now his little (who am I kidding, it was four times the size of his other hand last night...it was HUGE!) hand is wrapped up with mummy-like white stuff - I guess I can now call him mummy hand?!?