Staphylococcus aureus

Two weeks ago the staff at church participated in the Sr Adult Talent Show. They called themselves "Staff Infection." They performed a VERY HUMOROUS lip sync version of "For the Longest Time," by Billy Joel. The pastor was on a gurney in a hospital gown, the other members of our esteemed staff, in lab coats and wigs singing into their stethoscopes.

That was not the last we would hear of that particular infection this month. Last Thursday Ryan complained about a bite on the top of his foot. On Friday, he had the coach tape up the bite as it was irritated by the seam of his cleats. On Saturday afternoon, after all-region try outs, he took his tennis shoes off as soon as he got in the car around noon because it hurt. Saturday night, about 11:30pm, when he got in from an out-of-town concert, his ankle was swollen to twice its normal size! This bite had taken on a life of it's own and it was now causing pain from Ryan's calf to his toes.

We checked into the ER about 1:30am. The doctor on duty lanced it, pushed on it and sent the findings off to be tested. He told Ryan to elevate it, gave him a shot of antibiotic in the backside, and gave us a prescription of antibiotic to fill. Sunday Ryan stayed down most of the day, his leg hurt and the bump on his foot continued to grow.

Monday morning...doctor appointment... she decided to open the wound. It might have been a boil, not a bite. She cleans out a lot of " bad stuff." Cut about 1/2 inch deep (I watched) but didn't want to hit the tendon and wouldn't go any further. She sent us home, but wanted to know if it got worse.

Tuesday morning...I get called in to sub...Richard takes Ryan, who is in A LOT of pain, back to doctor. She sends them to an orthopedic doctor (because of the tendon issue). When this doctor looks at it he immediately says they have to go much deeper and get the infection out of the leg and heel. Get this...he didn't have powerful narcotics in his office. He numbed Ryan's skin, and went to digging. I will not go into what they have shared about the extraction, but Richard admits he had to sit down when he saw it.

Who knows how this built up? Now it is day three of packing the wound, cleaning the wound and physical therapy to clean out the wound in a whirlpool bath for his foot. At least 4 days of no school this week has got Ryan worried. He reconciled on Tuesday that football would be out on Friday. Now he wants to know where he's going to be during the game (sideline, stands, press box, or home).

This kind of thing is no stranger to our locker rooms. We found out this week that one cheerleader, one basketball player and another football player have been diagnosed with the same thing. Hopefully all their tests were like ours and it isn't the "bad," hard to treat, kind of staph.

Ryan has a good attitude. His XBox team has won a few extra games this week, and he's not been put in the hospital. It could have been much worse.

Counting our blessings...