Periorbital Cellulitis

...is what we hope Spencer does not have!

Today was day 6 of antibiotics for his double ear infection... 3rd ear infection. Remember he is only just turned 7 months old and he stays at home and his primary diet is breast milk. Oh yeah, and his twin sisters attend pre-school... carrier's!?!?!

He's been producing eye "goop" for a few days, nothing major and easy to keep clean. Then today, after his mid-day nap, he woke with a really matted eye. Far different than the previous minor eye goop. The gunky eye didn't bother him a bit... but boy was he not happy about us cleaning up his eye!

A bit of time passes and we notice that his eye is now red. Carie and I look at each other and say... pink eye? (the fancy Dr term would be Conjunctivitis :))

More time passes and it isn't looking good. Of course all of this takes place after our Ped's Saturday office hours are over. So I call the after hours number. The nurse and I talk and she believes we are dealing with pink eye... until she comes across a section in our Dr's protocol notes that deals with ear infections. Because he has an ear infection and is already on antibiotics AND he's had 2 or more ear infections in 6 months, and with the symptoms we are presenting, we are to be seen by a Dr within 24 hours. Wow!

So the nurse says she wants to chat with the Dr on call, because she's not run into this type of case before. She wants to determine the importance of being seen within 24 hours, or can we start some drops and see our Dr at our next appt that is already scheduled... Tuesday morning. Nurse hangs up to call Dr.

Nurse calls back and says that the Dr wants us to go in yet tonight, either to the urgent care or to the ER. Wow... alrighty then. Oh, and yeah it is bedtime. It is nearly 8:00. The boy is asleep and the girls' & Carie are on their way home from the store. So they return home, pick us up, and we are off. We chose to go to the urgent care. The really nice thing is that it is located in our Ped's office. So, it is totally a familiar environment for the kids.

The Dr takes a look at him and, for now, she thinks we are not dealing with Periorbital Cellulitis. So we get a script for some drops. But we are to keep an eye (ha) on him and if his eye becomes more red or swollen we are to go straight to the ER... where he would most likely be admitted for IV antibiotics.

He's got the first round of drops in. Let's hope that they do the trick and we can have a stay at home day tomorrow. One thing is certain; we'll either be at home or at the hospital.