So as promised here is the back story on our first time in casualty…as a patient. Surprisingly it wasn’t a traumatic injury to Levi. (Although Steph just caught him straddling the railing…on the second floor. He didn’t understand why she was yelling and running at him. I seriously doubt our ability to prevent him from killing himself at this rate.) It wasn’t even for Hannah with her recurrent vomiting…thank goodness for Zofran ODTs. The guilty party was in fact Jacob.
So going barefoot is kind of a necessity around here and at some point he apparently injured his foot/toe. He was complaining about it but in the most compassionate way possible we told him he was fine and to shake it off. Well after a full day of complaining and the development of a slight limp we decided to actually look at the supposed injury. Sure enough he had an open crack in the crease of his toe and had a small blood blister. Still not a big deal and definitely not worth opening so I cleaned it up and applied some antibacterial ointment and a bandage.
The next morning he said it was feeling a little better so I just let it go. About 5 minutes after we received notification of an MCI (mass casualty incident) coming in to the hospital (more on that later) I got a call from Steph saying that his entire toe was “black”. Seeing as how I couldn’t exactly leave at that point, I was able to have a friend/pediatrician stop by and take a look. It was apparently larger but still not worth opening.
That night Steph, Noah and Jacob went to a movie night and by then it had progressed even further. Another one of our friends looked at it and by this point it would require intervention. I didn’t have all the required supplies at home so our only choice was a trip to casualty. Thankfully by this time it was almost 9 pm so the normal theme park-like lines were gone.
Alvin and I prepped our patient and proceeded with an I&D which promptly released an impressive amount of blood and pus. (I completely forgot the “before” photo. Just trust me that the after looks sooooo much better and you can imagine what it looked like.)
Alvin and I proceeded to dress the wound on our patient and then the waiting game began for receiving our prescription. (It really wasn’t that long of a wait but knowing that I was on call the next two days, I was kind of hoping for an early night in bed.)
So that’s the story of our first (and probably not last) trip to casualty as a patient. The Kelleys are now official as we have a “family number” for our next visit(s). Let’s hope it doesn’t get too much use.
- Changing Seasons - September 4, 2016
- Well Done Good And Faithful Servants - May 2, 2016
- Looking Back….Looking Ahead - March 14, 2016
5 Comments
Francine Albright
Mar, 2, 2013Keep on blogging!
Lisa LaBar
Mar, 2, 2013Strong work and good save!
Joanne Vollmer Goodhart
Mar, 3, 2013A brave patient, too!
Tina Willow Burns
Mar, 3, 2013Oh Jacob, you are such a brave boy. Aunt Tina is very proud of you! I am also very proud of the doctors that took care of my Jacob!!
Prudence
Mar, 13, 2013Hi, I love your blog. I was thinking of other stories about parasites that get into feet in Kenya. I really think the children should wear shoes. I remember all the stubbed toes from barefooting it and wearing flip flops and sandals when I was a child. I think they make better sandals now thought. There are charities that give shoes or sandals to children in Kenya.