Hospital Stay

We are happy to say that after three days in the hospital - Bryant is home and doing well. It all started with a tiny scratch on the side of his knee. It became infected to the point that he was not walking on that leg. We took him to doctor and they drained some of it to do a culture and started him on an oral antibiotic. Followed up the next day with the doctor. It appeared to be worse than the previous day but the doc said it was probably due to being on the meds for a short amount of time. She outlined the area on his leg that was red and swelled and told us that if it was worse the next day to call. Well low and behold the next day it was worse. I called the pediatrician and was instructed to take him to the ER. (Our peds in this area don't admit their own patients - they have to be admitted by an ER physician.) After being in the ER for about 7 hours he was finally taken to his own room. They did 2 ultrasounds and 3 X-rays of his knee. Luckily the infection was not in the joint. They started him on IV antibiotics and decided to do another culture. He just absolutely loved having them press on it. The next day the doc decided she wanted to do an incision to have the area drain as much as possible. About 20 minutes before the incision was to occur 2 ladies came to the room to do "music therapy" with him. Suppose to take his mind away from it all. Bryant was having a great time with the music until the minute he saw the nurses and doc come in and begin putting on all the gloves and gowns. He knew what was about to happen. I have to say he did really good considering the situation and at times was distracted from the procedure by the music therapy that was still going on. The last day we were there they had a teacher come to the room to work with him on some reading and math. Unfortunately the teacher arrived about the same time as the discharge. Needless to say we were more anxious to get out of the hospital than stay around for some reading and math. (He had been doing some the previous days in the hospital anyway.) The final diagnosis of this all was a staph infection. Bryant had a followup with his pediatrician this past Friday and he said everything was looking good. We have to keep it bandaged and no physical activity (who are they kidding- he is a BOY) until the incicion is healed.

Fall Festivities

Last weekend we decided to join in on some of the fall activities. We (The Smiths, Ducars, and Barkmans) took a train ride to the pumpkin patch in Willow. It had rained earlier so everything was nice and muddy. The kids enjoyed picking their very own pumpkin to take home, making lollipop ghosts, playing with the oversized lincoln logs, and playing with the train set. When the train ride was over we caravaned to Hundsader Farms. We had a great time walking through the corn maze, watching the motorcycle stunt men, feeding the animals and as usual in Florida sweating to death at the end of October.

This week was full of activites as well. Baseball two nights, Family Fall Festival at Bryant's school, Storybook Parade at Bryant's school, party at Bryant's school, party at Caleb's school, and trick-or-treating with LJ. Way TOO MUCH candy to keep in this house. As a reminder to all parents: Check your child's candy before they dive in. NOTE: Caleb and Bryant both received a snack size bag of Christmas candy and cookies - not sure if someone was confused about the holiday, giving leftovers from last year or just early for Christmas this year. Needless to say those baggies are in the garbage.