Ben in the hospital...

Last Tuesday at around noon Ben got bite by our former guinea pig, "Blaze." By 8 p.m. that night the hand was swollen, hot and Ben was running a fever. Ted and I agreed that we had to take him to the ER. I thought they'd give him some antibiotics and we'd be on our way. That was not the case. The infection was so bad that he had to stay in the hospital until today... Saturday. Ted and I took turns at the hospital with Ben. Ted stayed at night and I went during the day. The whole affair was immensely draining. Plus the stress of not knowing what exactly is going to happen to your child and his hand... is so upsetting. The doctors were afraid that the infection was MRSA or Staph related and might spread to blood, bones or tendons. Ben was on IV antibiotics. Each day he made a tiny bit of progress until Thursday night when the wound erupted. (A lot of the bad stuff came out) Then the hand started to look a lot better. Ben told the nurse that everyone from his church was praying for him. She said that prayer was very healing. Ben thought that the hospital stay was all about the PS2 and watching cable tv. Also they had just about everything a kid could want on the food menu. I'm so thankful for the support of family and friends. It's so difficult to see your child suffering with perhaps possible implications of amputation... The ER doc said that we came in just in time... children loose hands over animal bite infections. So I'm writing this here tonight to give parents a little warning about pets and animal bites... even the guinea pig can carry some nasty germs.