Let's Start at the Very Beginning....

....a very good place to start.
Wednesday night, after the Cardinals ballgame, I went back to my parents house to pick up Autumn and Ella. My mom said she thought Autumn had a fever. I took her home and gave her tylenol and put her back to bed. The next morning, she still had the fever, still low grade and I noticed she had a rash over most of her body. I gave her more meds, but the fever didn't go away. Well, I thought, I better take her in to her pediatrician. I thought they would just tell me she was teething (like they did last week), or maybe strep throat. Mom took the other two to their swim lessons and I took her to her doctors. While in the waiting room, I noticed her middle finger on her right hand was huge, and gross looking. This is the same finger that has had a big "birthmark" since birth. I say that because it looked like a blood blister to me, but the dr kept saying it was a birthmark and "NO! don't try to pop it!" I became concerned and showed the dr first off when we came into his office. He didn't want to try to pop the infected finger but sent us to the lab for blood work. We then came back for a 24hour shot of antibiotics . She was stuck twice that day. (Well, more since they couldn't find a vein to take blood from). We then were sent home, saying everything should be better by morning. I knew it wasn't going to , I was getting a sense of urgency. I even called back later in the same afternoon, saying her fever wasn't subsiding. They told me to give it till morning.
Friday morning, she woke up at 7 with the fever, I gave more meds and put her back to bed. I immediately called the drs office when it opened and they got me right in. The dr was still hesitant to lance it himself, but her rash was worse and the infection was growing down and around her finger and turning a dark grey. He sent me to a orthopedist office , but couldn't get me in till noon. So I picked up Tracie Promnitz (nee Allan) who was in town and wanted to hang out (thank you, Lord!), she agreed to go with me to the appointment. After dropping off the kids, we headed off. The ortho lanced her finger (more sticks), and you should have seen the stuff fly! Tracie and I actually watched (while holding poor Autumn down). They also took X-rays of her finger. Then he said it probably needed more done to it and possibly surgery. So he sent us to the hospital right away. At this point, I am thinking it would be fine. The finger was lanced, a bunch of stuff had come out and it looked better, not so puffed and swollen. I figured the ER drs would give me a prescription and send us home.
At the ER, we had regular dr's and the plastic surgeon in to see us. The plastic surgeon said he wanted to admit us for a day or so, get an IV in her and if the antibiotics from that didn't work, surgery. Hmmm, well, I wasn't expecting this. But the Lord was really with me, and I am pretty sure I took it calmly. Her finger was already puffed back up and looking worse, and I just wanted her to be healed. Tracie was a wonderful help for the next 4 hours. James was out of town and so I was keeping him up to date, and my mom and Tracie was keeping her mom and sister in the loop. It was a really awful 4 hours as they tried to get an IV in her, with Tracie and I holding her hands and feet for each new try. They tried two ER nurses, two helicopter flight nurses and still nothing. In fact, they even thought they had it in by the 4th try (arms, hands, feet, she was stuck multiple times, everywhere). But after an hour, realized it wasn't in and it was just pumping the saline solution into her foot. So they decided I was right all along and she was really dehydrated (I tried to tell them this multiple times, but they didn't seem to take it into consideration). By this time, Tracie and I had gotten her to drink some water and pedialyte I had brought. Each new try for the IV left her hot, hoarse and exhausted. She drank greedily. I also asked for a NICU nurse for the 5th attempt. I was told"Oh, hon. We do a lot more sticks down here than they do. We'll get it." "Yes, but the NICU nurses have more experience on babies, could you please ask for one?" I don't know if they ever did, but the next nurse to come in and try had "neonatal unit" written on her shirt. She found a vein for the IV. Praise the LORD! We had had people praying for this for hours. The poor thing was very traumatized by this time. It was a teaching hospital, so lots of people were coming in to poke, prod, listen, touch, and ask me the same 40 questions every hour. She was screaming and slapping at their hands and trying to climb up me and away from it all by this time. She hadn't had a nap since morning.
Around 7 that night, we were finally shown into a private room. Around 10, the first round of antibiotics were given. It was a long first night, as she woke up whenever anyone came into the room, which started her crying. And she was hooked up to at least 3 different things with tubes and wires everywhere. She was so tangled all the time.
Long story, longer......the antibiotics did their thing, and stuff started to ooze from her finger Saturday. Her hand got a whirlpool bath which helped clean it out more. Sunday morning, the IV got taked out and we begged to go home (they wanted us to stay till Monday). We were released Sunday evening.
Their best guess is that she got a cut on that finger and then got some bacteria in it, possibly from someone's mouth. It probably was a superbug because the first round of antibiotics did not work on her.
So we are all washing hands, using hand sanitizer and trying to keep her finger clean with hand baths and wrapped in bandaids and neosporin. She has an appointment with the plastic surgeon on Friday to assess the healing process. She is still in pain with it, it hurts to bath it, or to have someone even touch the finger. The infected skin is dying and falling off while the new skin is raw and still healing. So she is a little sensitive with it, but with the multiple bandaids and pads protecting it, she uses it just fine.
Thanks to everyone for praying for her, and to Tracie who has a great help on that day. I am so glad God had her with me, it would have been awful to have gone through that by myself.