A Rocky Weekend

So...where did I leave off...

Friday night into Saturday morning, M continued to run a fever, but knowing it take about 24h for antibiotics to work, I didn't worry much. Saturday morning he woke up in such a better mood. He was playing, his mood was good and although the sores still bothered him, it didn't keep him from playing. I had a conference to go to on Saturday afternoon and I waffled a bit on whether or not to go (it was in a city about 1.5h from home). I did end up going leaving the kids with my sister and everything seemed to be okay.

Sunday morning M woke up, still acting like he felt fine, but his sores were still as bad as they had been. They weren't worse, but usually for M, once he starts on antibiotics, his sores get better within 24h. Since they weren't worse, and he was still fever free, I just continued to watch him through out the day.

By dinner time Sunday, the sore on his leg started to become worrisome. It was bigger, and redder. I tried to express it, but nothing would come out. The entire leg, from the knee down, was hard and swollen. I started to worry about circulation and it was evident that it was bugging M more than it had been. When I changed his diaper a bit later, I noticed two new spots. It was pretty clear at that point that the antibiotics were not working. By 8p I was more worried about the leg, and ended up taking him to the ER.

At the hospital the doctor quickly looked at it and knew it needed to be expressed. I told him I couldn't make it drain. At that time, this big, male doctor, took his fingers and squeezed the every living $#!# out of this sore. Of course he got it to drain. He also drain two other sites all while M was writhing in pain. I hated to see M go through that but I knew in the end he would feel better. We were then started on new meds and headed home. We actually made excellent time being back home by 11p.

This morning the pediatrician called to check on M. I told him of our ER adventure and he was happy we went as he had received the culture report from Friday. It showed that the drug M was on, was useless against the germs he had. The meds that the ER had prescribed were the correct meds and we should see some progress soon. This is concerning because when M had his first outbreak in October, the first antibiotic was enough to treat him. This means that since his first outbreak, this germ has already mutated to a more virulent form. If M continues to suffer with these outbreaks, the likelihood is that the germs will get stronger and stronger and become more and more difficult to treat. Very scary.

Tonight M is doing better. Almost 24h into his new meds and he looks and feels better. Almost all the small sores are fading and while the big ones haven't changed much, they aren't as red and definitely haven't grown.

And, while I am happy my son has access to good health care and that he is getting better, I am again reminded how horrible the state of this health care system is. In the last four days I have paid the following:

• $20 Co-Pay
• $206 in medications
• $150 Emergency Room Co-Pay
• And I expect additional bills of $400 as M's insurance does not start until I pay $400 out of pocket - not including my co-pays.

So, WITH insurance, and infection that has afflicted my son has cost me $776. Again WITH insurance. How sad is it that I will have to make choices on what will and will not get paid because I had to get health care for my son. Thank goodness I have a refund coming soon. I just cannot accept a society where a mother has to struggle to have minimal, basic care provided for her child. You would think that having insurance would protect me from this hardship...but no. And, as a side note, I still have over $3000 in health care bills from K's surgery in November.