Lily's Foot

Lily's scary, swollen left foot and ankle.

Bad sore on the heel of her foot.

She was very cheerful in the hospital. The nurses could hear her singing from the halls.

Lily got her last set of casts off just before Christmas. Thanks to our good friend Lila's support, Lily was very well behaved and much less dramatic getting the casts off this time around. :)

When her casts came off, immediately we noticed two purple pressure spots on her left foot. Within a few minutes they began to swell and by the end of the day the whole foot was swollen. This was on a Thursday, so by Saturday night (Christmas Eve) we were starting to feel concerned. Both pressure points turned into sores and the foot was red, hot and very swollen. On Christmas Day we talked to some friends and family who took a look at it and everyone agreed it would be best to get it checked out. So. . . Christmas night we took her to Primary Children's ER.

She was diagnosed with Cellulitis. That just means that bacteria got into one of her sores and infected the tissue. If gone untreated the infection could go to the bone or up her leg. In more serious situations it could cause problems with her shunt (due to the bacteria in the body) or turn into gangrene. Needless to say, we were glad we took her in. Antibiotics clears the problem right up but our concern was that Lily spits out all medicines. We had no confidence that she would even take one dose. So doctors agreed to put her in the hospital for IV antibiotics.

She was in for a little less than two days and her foot looked so much better! At that point we agreed to send her home with a prescription for antibiotics. Joel's sister gave us a great suggestion to put her meds in a drinkable yogurt (danimals). This worked like a charm! She had no idea she was taking it. Phew! We are glad that this little ordeal is over. Thank you to those who brought in meals and babysat, and to Joel's mom for helping with the kids.

In the hospital, we had a wound specialist come in and teach us about how to care for Lily's pressure sores. The simple teaching we received about the healing process will be very helpful to us in the future if Lily has any other problems with sores.