Periorbital Cellulitis.....

........ is a very scary term. It's basically a very serious infection in the skin surrounding the eye socket. It causes high fever and can lead to meningitis due to the close proximity to the brain. It's ususually a result of a sinus or ear infection that travels into the eye area. Want to know how I know so much about this disease? Zach had it and was in the hospital for three days.

He woke up on Dec. 29th looking like this.... and he had a fever of over 102. So we called the pedatrician, who told us to take him to the emergency room.


We had to wait like 3 hours in the emergency waiting area and rooms until we saw a doctor... I guess it was a busy day for emergencies. That's not very comforting when you've got a sick baby whose eye is swelling worse by the minute. I actually don't have a picture of how bad it got... I couldn't bear to look at it again. But it was completley closed, and it stuck out so far that it looked like there was a giant gumball under his eyelid. They talked about sending him to Riley but decided unless he got worse it wasn't necessary.

With Grandpa Dave in his room. My parents, and Chris's mom, were really good about visiting us and bringing us food. Heidi came and stayed with him some too. I think it made him feel better to see so many familiar people when he was in an unfamiliar place. And actually, the hospital was quite nice and let Chris and I sleep there for the two nights he stayed. Which was a really good thing for all of us.

The baby jail crib he had to sleep in. You can see his little foot and how he's connected to all those monitors.

Once we got home on New Year's eve. Giving Mommy some love. He was much better and VERY happy to be home where no one tries to poke him with needles....

I'll spare everyone the AWFUL details about how they tried to give him an IV and only after poking him about 6 times they realized his veins were too small.... or about how they couldn't find a vein to draw bood from (3 separate times) so they had to guess where one was and then sort of poke around in his arm until they hit one..... or how he had to have a shot in each thigh every 12 hours and we had to pin him down... or how the oral antibiotic gives him diarrhea so bad that they called in an additional prescription for the diaper rash we're supposed to expect.

All I care about is that he's home and healthy and happy.... we go back to the doctor tomorrow for another checkup. But he's been fever free since the day he was admitted to the hospital and seems to be doing really well. Just check out the proof below....