Mama Knows Best

One Day in March of last year, Jaren had three little spots on his upper leg/thigh area that just looked like popped blisters. But then they started growing and got deeper and more menacing looking. At the same time I think he was coming down with a cold of some sort. We found a new doctor by our duplex and when I took him in he told me it was just a diaper rash. I explained that I had never seen a diaper rash on Jaren that looked like this and that was up so high in front, but he dismissed me with an anti-fungal prescription and sent me on my way.



Before I go on with the story let me tell you a little more about this doctor to see what you think. While it was our turn to see him he got a phone call and stepped out of his office. So I was holding Jaren and wandering about the room trying to keep him entertained. In the corner I noticed a skeleton hanging up with a sign on it- so walking over to it I said, "Look Jaren, it's Mr. Skeleton. His name is..." I leaned over to read the sign, "George Bush." That took me back a little so I stepped closer and read the rest of the sign. "The Taliban did this to me." Right then the doctor walked back in the room. I felt guilty somehow being caught reading his Taliban sign. What did that mean? Was he anti-George Bush, or anti-Taliban, or just anti-American? Whatever the message he was trying to send it didn't seem very appropriate to have in a family medical center.



Going home I applied the anti-fungal cream on Jaren and watched as this sore got worse and worse. It looked like it was eating his flesh away. I didn't have bandages large enough to cover it and his diapers kept rubbing against it causing it to become more irritated. So a few days later I told Varian that my mother's intuition was alarmed and I didn't feel like the cream was doing him any good and I was going to take him to the emergency room. Thank heavens I did. They were shocked at what they saw and kept sending teams of doctors in to look at his skin and give their opinions. They admitted him and kept us there for 5 days till they could get the situation more under control.



I'll continue the rest of the story in the next post, but I'll leave you with this happy image of what his leg looked like. This wasn't even the worst it got. It kept growing all down his thigh, and up into his groin. It would go so deep the skin started to turn black. Poor little Jaren was so weak and limp and sickly.

 

As awful as this was, I really did feel calm and comforted through it all, and that I could just focus all my attention on helping him get better. And by this point I was just so grateful to be in the hospital and having professionals watching over us and trying to heal him. What a relief that was. The rest of the story I'll continue on the next post. Stay tuned.