Austin's first visit to the ER!

 

Austin had his first visit to the Emergency Department today. Don't worry, it wasn't anything too serious. He woke up from his nap 2 days ago with redness over his right eye. We figured he had bonked it on a toy or something when we weren't looking. We watched it and waited for it to go away. It stuck around the next day, not really getting any better or worse. This morning when he woke up, it was lots more swollen and really red and even a little purplish. It never seemed to bother him much. He didn't rub at it and he seemed more cranky, but still playful. He didn't have any fevers or cold symptoms or anything. It probably could have waited until tomorrow to go to clinic, but with how much more swollen it was getting, I wanted to get him started on antibiotics sooner rather than later. So we went into the ED and Dr. Poling (one of my peds residency colleagues) and Dr. Mannenbach (one of the peds ED consultants I know) checked him out and confirmed my diagnosis of periorbital cellulitis (basically an infection of the skin and soft tissue around the eye). As I had anticipated, they prescribed him a course of Augmentin and we headed home. The whole deal took a few hours by the time we got there, got checked in, were seen, got the prescription, and picked up the medication from the pharmacy. By the time we got home, Austin was soooo tired, cranky, and hungry that we gave him lunch as soon as we got home and then put him right down for his nap. Surprisingly, he didn't go to sleep right away despite being exhausted. He did eventually go to sleep. He slept for about 2 hours and was much happier after that. He took his first dose of the medication really well, but fought me on the second dose, so we'll see how it goes for the rest of the 10 day course. It seems like his eye is already getting better though. Here it is this evening at dinner.

In other events....

We had the March of Dimes March for Babies yesterday, but we ended up not being able to go. The weather was so awful that we didn't feel like we could subject Austin to weather that cold and windy for a few hours on a 6 mile walk. It was in the 20s for temps, with 35 mph winds and wind chills in the teens with some blowing snow. Yucky! We raised $1360 for the cause though, and turned in our fundraising on Thursday, so we did our part to help save babies!

That same day, Austin and I went to Allison's baby shower! She is one of the 3rd year residents and is expecting a baby girl soon! I loved shopping for gifts for a little baby girl and the party was very fun. Austin got to meet new people and see my fellow residents again. He also got to play with Soren, who is about 3 weeks older than him. He loved the chocolate ice cream cake and the yummy cake Esther made!

Jon Byrer came to visit that day, too. Austin had so much fun with him! Austin would go over to him, take him by the hand, and lead him to his toys to play with him. Austin tried to get Jon to take him outside, but the weather was way too yucky for that!

Here are a few more pictures from the past couple weeks...

Austin loves putting on daddy's Notre Dame slippers and walking around the house in them... 

Austin is now tall enough to reach the power button on the TV. We figured he'd try to turn it on all the time, but he actually goes over to it and turns it off. We've never really let him watch TV (no TV until age 2 as recommended by the AAP), so I guess he's just not really into it.

Here is Austin checking out his new "Cozy Coupe." Apparently, they rolled his car over to the Gagliardi's , where they have a similar car that is a bit older, and he played with theirs and they played with his. Silly boy!

Another fun trip to the park...

Bath time! Austin still adores his baths. He knows the word "bath" too, so if we say, "Austin, do you want to take a bath?" he giggles and gets all excited. 

Here he is lining up his ducks on the edge of the tub. He had never done it before, but daddy made a comment about getting his ducks in a row, and he put them all up on the edge of the tub and smiled and squealed. He was so proud of himself! Then, of course, he started throwing them over the edge.

I just finished up on a brutally busy month on the general pediatric hospital service. I got very little sleep and got crankier as the month rolled on. We had some very interesting patients, some very very frustrating patients, and way too many patients. Now I have had a weekend off, and am feeling a little bit refreshed. I'm on a gastroenterology elective this month, then I have one more month in the neonatal ICU to complete my first year of residency. Then it is on to 2nd year, when I'll have a much nicer schedule, with less overnight call (30 hr shifts), and more elective time. We're looking forward to a couple trips coming up. In a couple weeks, we head to Notre Dame for Michelle's graduation, then back again in June for Scott and Kim's wedding!

On a sadder note, please pray for Steve's family. His Uncle Jay just died this week.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that Austin might have suffered an eye injury from being struck by a blown ball! Take it easy windy Nanny!!!

 
Baby Cronk said...

Just to note...Austin was not injured in the course of the hilarity that ensued when Nanny was popping balls at him...The visit to the ER was a week earlier and he had a

already healed up by the time he had a rubber ball flying at him.